Sigh. Even some of Jon's fans show appalling ignorance.

ONE. Stewart helping out his writers, out-of-pocket, IS NOT CROSSING THE STRIKE LINE. If he offered financial help, good on him. But that has NOTHING to do with any strike.

Nothing obliged the talk shows to be part of the strike. They don't get anything out of it. The strikers are griping over movie and TV residuals. The book (and comic book) industry went through the same thing DECADES ago. If the TV writers thought they were too superior to work out the same contract deals back then, that's THEIR fault.

TWO. Talk shows do often run reruns. Sometimes it's "best of," with the time-dependent stuff left out. Sometimes they just rerun the past two weeks. It's not as if it were an actual news show.

THREE. There are thousands of talented, capable writers, ready, able, and willing to break into the incestuous writer's market. It's not a high-skill field, with lives depending on them, like air traffic controllers who were fired for demanding equipment that wasn't fifty years old. (Go look it up, kiddies.) Writers should be grateful that they HAVE a job. If they think they're being treated unfairly, they can always find another line of work. A kid with a random-word program could write "Desperate Housewives"-type trash.

FOUR. Entertainers, especially progressive entertainers like Stewart and Colbert, are shooting themselves in the foot. Rightwingscum dis-infotainers are laughing themselves sick. Faux Spews and their sewage-spouting ilk figure they'll see a huge jump in couch potatoes, and have upped their advertising rates (and their own paychecks).

FIVE. IT'S A NON-ISSUE. While the corporate-whore media is moaning over having to watch reruns, Big Money interests are quietly preparing to install their puppet as the next ruler who controls their tax handouts. All four "front runners" in the presidential race, D and R, are owned and operated by multinationals.

But you just go on worrying about entertainment, and confusing a union demanding millions in residuals with a union demanding a living wage.

Basically, the way I read all this was Stewart made an offer, it was turned down on principle, and Stewart's rep decided to do some damage control. That's usually how this stuff goes...if it isn't on paper, then it didn't happen, or something like that.

this story essentially has established nothing - which leaves us without a story - fitting as there are no writers at the table....

Just put some bright witty people around a table and let 'em riff; you know, like a large Charlie Rose table with lemon pie and tequila shots.

JON STEWART FOR PRESIDENT OF PAKISTAN!!!

Writers' can't help but write.

They'll get script ideas even while walking the picket lines and sneak off to Internet cafes just to get them down on screen.

Unfortunately the producers know this.

Kind of sneaking of them to show Musharraf with Stewart at this time. Are they trying to send a message of what they think of Jon? It doesnt work for me.

ok, even if he is paying them, but whoop. After all, I do believe Jon was a writer himself, and even still does write. If he does pay them, its his money, and it doesnt really hurt anyone. Does it?

I'm a Writers Guild member and a working writer, but I believe the strike is a tactical mistake. The Guild won't get crushed, but we'll end up striking for very little in the end. I consider myself very pro-union and don't have anything against striking, but like invading other countries, if you're going to do it you should at least be relatively certain that you're going to win. The problem is that the Guild can't beat modern-day corporations with a 1950's union. You need to have much greater mass over an industry or a company than the writers have. The Guild should have a) gone out with other unions (actors, directors, editors, etc), b) vigorously recruited more members, even in areas "tangential" to writing (and even at the expense of pliant unions like IATSE if need be) and c) instituted a slowdown prior to the strike, instead of rushing to finish things up. Instead we failed to unionize reality workers, we failed to link up effectively with other unions (the DGA might in fact undercut us), and we ended up stockpiling scripts anyway - wasn't that what going out now instead of next year was supposed to prevent? I wish we had a leader like SEIU head Andy Stern, who understands the recruitment and groundwork required to muster critical leverage over an industry and make real gains.

What is with the change of headline so that it contradicts the story? We need the Daily Show to explain this to us! Turn it in to Beat The Press!

There are a couple of dumbasses on here who think that if Jon Stewart paid his writers during the strike (which apparently now isn't the case) that he would be encouraging strike breaking.

Obviously you don't know much about strikes, or unions...

That would not be encouraging strike breaking at all. The writers would not be working, they would still be on strike, Jon would just be helping them out so that they wouldn't be forced into undue hardship. I am a union member, and during our last grocery worker strike/lockout in Southern California there were many families who lost their homes and ruined their credit because they could not afford to go without their regular paychecks (they received a small subsidy from a union fund that we contribute to for such things).

If anything, Jon would be aiding the cause of the strikers by allowing his workers the ability to hold out a little longer should they need to.

It appears as though he is not paying them now (not that hey has to, or should) although, if you're still thinking about it Jon, that would be one classy thing to do!

OOPS, just an unfounded rumor, I didn't think Stewart had Beck kind of money.

Now I love the daily show, when its on. Most of the time they are on vacation or something and its re-runs anyway. So would it be any different with our without writers now? Just keep running re-runs and no one will notice.

Good on ya, Jon Stewart. Your writers don't deserve to starve to death, excellent as they are. And they are the lucky ones. Another blog on this site says the average salary of Writers Guild members is $5,000. That's a year, folks.
"In the beginning was the word ... " People just do not realize -- or maybe don't care -- that all television and movies, visual though they are, begin with a script that is written by people who have stared at blank computer screens and written and rewritten until their eyeballs bleed. So strap on your seatbelts, folks, you're going to be inundated with repeats and reality show drek instead of something crafted to entertain. Yuk.

SILENCE IN LAFFLAND

Just how unique is their vaunted point of view

If they have to switch to repeats?

Neither Jon nor Stephen can utter something new,

At a loss without cheat sheets.