Message from networks, studios and AMPTP to TV viewers : you’re morons !
By fred | December 19, 2007
They think that they own and are, television, and that you can’t live without television, without their television, without them, so that you’ll always, always come back to them. Doesn’t matter how bad they treat you, doesn’t matter how hard they hit you, or for how long they’ve been doing so, you will never leave them, because you need them !
That’s right, they think you need them ! They are convinced that it is you, who needs them. But the truth is the complete opposite, it is them, who need you !
You can do without them, in this world of an ever-growing Internet and always faster connection, people do not need to watch television. So stop ! Stop feeding them, stop letting them treat you as shit, make it clear to them that if they don’t change their ways, that if they don’t show a minimum of respect, that if they don’t stop lying all the time, that if they don’t go back and negotiate with writers, you will not watch TV, not their TV.
Right now what people of, say, ABC - tanking in ratings given how its dramas don’t repeat well - what they should be working on is contacting the WGA and working out a deal. Because should they have writers of their shows back to work, should they have new episodes of all their series as normal, while all other networks are empty, they would simply kill any “competition”.
Instead, they held what they dare calling “Strike Educational Seminar”, something described to their staff as “a chance to hear the real issues in question“, where in reality it only offered a tribune to Mark Pedowitz and Marc Sandman for them to let all their hate towards the WGA be heard, and nothing but lies were told.
A great report by Nikki Finke explains what actually took place at this ABC strike seminar, by a confirmed Disney/ABC employee :
I went for selfish reasons, hoping to get the answer to the question, Will I lose my job? But I also wanted to hear what these folks had to say, and I was shocked. Sandman, a labor lawyer here, did not refrain from editorializing every chance he got. Rather than discuss what this meant for the studio in a pragmatic sense (2008 pilots, jobs, bonuses, etc.), he totally BASHED the WGA at every turn. These were some of the salient points this little blowhard spread to no less than 150 employees:
1. The Guild wanted to strike way back in July. The AMPTP was ready to bargain then, but the WGA refused.
2. They never spend more than 3 hours at the table, and this is the Guild’s fault. Basically, says he, Verrone and Young are novices who’ve never done this before and as such read from a script at the table, then leave. When talks broke off the last time it was because the WGA handed the AMPTP their proposals, then left. According to him, the AMPTP was ready to work things out.
3. The main issues for the WGA, which the AMPTP considers unacceptable are: 1) sympathy strikes; 2) reality and animation; and 3) the issue of distribution, which says that the WGA is insisting on a provision whereby no network or studio can acquire a product unless the writer(s) of that product are complying with WGA rules. This is what he had the audacity to say. He also said that in terms of streaming and downloads, the AMPTP has a proposal that is absolutely workable.
4. The DGA is a much more responsible, reasonable union. The DGA had one tiny strike in the last 40 years, while the WGA strikes every chance it gets.
5. The main reason the WGA is striking is political. The main reason the Guild wants to unionize reality and animation is to create more revenue stream through dues. (!!!!!!) It has nothing to do with caring about writers. And, he said, because Patric Verrone used to write for animation, he has a particular beef with that.
6. He referred to the strikes as a “traveling circus”.
The thing that killed me is that people in the audience were buying it. During the Q&A, questions such as “What can we do to to help the studio’s cause?” were asked. I almost lost it, and my cheeks were so red I felt like I suddenly had a 104 fever. The way this information was presented — in addition to being complete bullshit — was absolutely unacceptable and irresponsible. This asshole was given a theater to act out his own personal vendetta against the WGA to an audience that doesn’t know any better. It was awful.
Feel free to spread this far and wide, to Writeraction and Nikke Finke (who he referred to as “Tokyo Rose”).
This has to stop, and you can help at making that happen. If you love TV, you need to stop watching it.
You need to explain to everyone what’s really going on, that for the sake of TV, you, viewers, have to go on strike as well, you have to tune out !
Unless, as they think, you are a bunch a stupid morons happy to eat whatever shit networks and studios feel like throwing in your face, of course…
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