Washington Week: Student Voices (O)

TV, movie writers go on strike
By Kimberly Cole
Washington Square News (NYU)
11/06/2007

(U-WIRE) NEW YORK — TV and movie writers went on strike Monday morning after months of negotiations failed to produce an agreement with producers over how much writers should be paid when their work is bought over the Internet or sold on DVD.

The strike, the first since 1988, was announced Friday night after the writers' old contract expired Wednesday. It immediately sent many late-night comedy and talk shows — such as "The Daily Show," "Saturday Night Live" and "Late Night with Conan O'Brian" — into reruns.

Sherry Goldman, a spokeswoman for the Writers Guild of America East, said that writers are not given a fair percentage of profits for their work used on the Internet and sold as DVDs.

"Companies are being paid through the sale of writers' work and advertisement of their work," Goldman said. "If companies get paid, then [the writers] should get paid."

A statement from Nick Counter, the president of the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, called the strike "irresponsible" and said that the writers guild was "unwilling to compromise on most of their demands."

"We made an attempt at meeting them in a number of their key areas including Internet streaming and jurisdiction in New Media," Counter stated.

Writers formed a picket line at Rockefeller Center at 9 a.m. Monday morning, while on the West Coast, members of the Writers Guild of America West marched outside a dozen Hollywood studios.

Goldman said the strike in New York runs from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. every day at a number of different locations. Silvercup Studios in Long Island City is scheduled as the site for Tuesday's demonstration.

Professor Barry Goldsmith, a Gallatin comedy writing professor at NYU and a former WGA member who has been on strike twice with the writers' union, said the decision to strike is never easy for a writer because jobs are often not stable.

"It's a very hard thing to become; it's not stable. And then anything that adds instability like a strike makes it that much harder," he said.

Frank Lesser, a writer for "The Colbert Report" who also picketed at Rockefeller Center last night, said the choice was not simple.

"We'd all love to be back working. We're happy doing what we do, but this is something we feel strongly about," Lesser said. "The talking point is to get a fair share of the billions of dollars producers make."

Leading Democratic presidential candidates Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton also announced their support for the striking writers Monday afternoon, with Obama encouraging writers and producers to work to negotiate a contract, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

The writers guilds have received support from other parts of the industry, including the Screen Actors Guild.

Erik-Anders Nilsson, a member of the SAG, said, "Without writers, people like us don't act."

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