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Jay Leno is a scumbag

By fred | January 4, 2008

There, I said it. Yes, I know this is harsh, but guess what : it’s meant to be. What he did was really ugly, it was a real stab in the back of all writers he claimed to support, and such an attitude really is despicable. The WGA doesn’t want to say it, which is understandable given everything that goes on at the moment, but I’m not in the same position they’re in, I’m more free that way and so I’ll go ahead and say it for them : Jay Leno: you Sir, are a scumbag.

I’ve already went over this after I watched his monologue when he returned on the air Wednesday, but I feel the need to go over it again now that a few statements have been released from all side.

Let’s start at the beginning, in case you missed things and/or don’t really know what this is all about.

On Wednesday most of the late night shows went back on the air. But if Letterman and Ferguson did so with writers, since Letterman’s company, Worldwide Pants, owns both shows and was able to sign a deal with the WGA giving the writers all that they’re asking for, the others - Leno, Conan, and Kimmel; Stewart and Colbert will be in the same position when they return Monday - have no such deal, and came back crossing picket lines, and without their writers.

They have all explained the reasons that had them go there, while they still support the writers and the WGA strike : their non-writing staff. Because they have the ability to go back on the air in their quality of host, but not writer, (all hosts being at least both writers and hosts on their shows,) they can ensure that all of the on-writing staff on their work won’t loose their job due to the strike, and the show being off the air.

This is obviously a very special situation, as such a thing is impossible for all scripted TV shows where, without writers and episode scripts, there can’t be no work done. And because they value had this opportunity to save hundreds of people’s jobs if not more, they all decided to take it and bring back their shows on the air. Yet, they made it very clear on many occasions that they were still supportive of the writers and their strike, hope for a resolution soon that would give them the fair deal they’re asking for, and that they only came back as host, not writer, to save jobs.

Now what this leads to is that while they were “allowed” to come back, and supported by the WGA, picket lines would still be there. Not as a personal attack to the hosts themselves, obviously, but because the shows are missing their writers, and the picket lines are here to ensure that no supporters of the writers will go in as a guest, they’re here to still pressure networks and studios that they still need to go back and negotiate a fair deal with the writers, because that’s the only way the shows can really be back, as usual and at their standard level of quality, with their writers.

And if Leno, Conan and all the others could go back on the air, they remained writers, members of the WGA, and - as they said repeatedly - supportive of the strike. As such, they were not allowed to write anything. The WGA even made this clear, when they sent out a statement back in December reminding the strike rules :

The Strike Rules, among other provisions, prohibit Guild members from performing any writing services during a strike for any and all struck companies. This prohibition includes all writing by any Guild member that would be performed on-air by that member (including monologues, characters, and featured appearances) if any portion of that written material is customarily written by striking writers.

So as soon as you are a writer, member of the WGA, you cannot write. And Leno is a writer, is a member of the WGA, and repeated again he was a supporter of the strcking writers. Yet, as you probably know, Leno ignored all that and did his monologue anyways, clearly breaking the strike rules. This was a clear stab in the back of the writers, because he knew he wasn’t supposed to do so, but he didn’t care. It’s easy to say you support the writers, but what mattered most to Leno was to keep beating Letterman in the ratings. He wanted to prove the World he was the number one late night host, and that even without writers he could beat Letterman, who has his writers with him.

And so he forgot all about supporting the writers, and wrote himself a monologue, as he even proudly announced during the said monologue. Worse than that, he even try to appear as one of the good guys in front of the public eyes, aware of the truth, by stating that what he was doing was allowing buy the Guild, knowing it was not !

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