‘Colbert Report’ writer Jay Katsir gives some perspective on the WGA strike

From the Princeton Alumni Weekly:

Solidarity forever
When clockwise picketing fails, try counterclockwise
By Jay Katsir ’04

…

For those unfamiliar with the WGA strike and the issues that precipitated it, here is a timeline:

1988: After a prolonged strike, the Writers Guild agrees to a “discount” residual on the sale of home video (eventually, DVDs) so that production companies may devote more funds to “growing” the market. Residuals, akin to the royalties an author makes on sales of a book, are key to many writers’ financial survival in a fickle industry. No doubt with this in mind, writers settle for the following residual structure: For every $20 home video purchased, the producers will chuckle and rub their bare bellies with doubloons.

1989: Reality TV — cheaply produced, nonunion programming that is written or shaped by staff credited as “story editors” so as to avoid appearing scripted — gains traction with the success of Cops. The traction is the result of Cops occupying FOX’s 4:30, 7:30, 8:00, 8:30, 9:00, and 11:30 timeslots.

1991: Do the Urkel!

Nov. 4, 2007: Contract negotiations between the WGA and the AMPTP break down over the writers’ desire to be compensated for material distributed over the Internet, which one day likely will unite television and home movies in a single digital appliance that can more efficiently keep you from talking to your family. Anticipating this, production companies ask for time to complete a multiyear study investigating the Internet’s profit potential before renegotiating. The study is expected to focus on whether the cabin of the NBC CEO’s jet can be outfitted with a Slip ’n Slide composed of soapy gold bars.

Nov. 5, 2007: WGA members walk off their jobs and onto the picket lines. After a few hours exposed to the elements, half the Guild’s membership falls prey to the galloping consumption.

Nov. 8, 2007: Celebrity Picket Day! Luminaries such as Susan Sarandon, Julianne Moore, and the casts of all 49 Law and Order programs join the writers on the line in New York City to show their solidarity. I briefly march next to Tim Robbins, mutter something that he cannot hear, and later claim to my friends that I talked to him.

Mid-November, 2007: WGA writers attempt to bring attention to their cause by producing short videos for dissemination on YouTube. User comments posted below the videos range from hostile to apocalyptically hostile. All commenters additionally express their intent to vote for Ron Paul.

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(h/t omnie)

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