Memo to Peter Chernin, Les Moonves, Barry Meyer, Bob Iger, et al

Read more strike coverage on the Huffington Post's writers' strike page.

Dear Peter, Les, Barry, Bob, and your AMPTP cohorts,

We all see the strategy you guys have been playing: put the rollback of residuals on the table, then take them off and act like this is some great, magnanimous gesture. I suppose the hardliners among you enjoyed the move, but everyone knew it was just a negotiating ploy and not a viable position.

Then there was the way you didn't negotiate for the seven months leading up to the pending strike, then thought you could get a settlement done in seven hours. Right.

After the writers went on strike in New York while you were still negotiating in Los Angeles, your guys faked indignation and proclaimed that you can't negotiate with a union that has gone on strike. But many times autoworkers -- and other unions -- have gone on strike and the owners have continued to negotiate. You say you want a settlement but act like you are more interested in punishing the writers.

We all see the other leg of your strategy: make a deal with the Director's Guild in early December, then try and turn up the heat on the writers. Do you really think that by making a deal with the directors you are going to do anything other than utterly alienate the working members of the WGA? When you put rollbacks on the table, you lost the Ventura Blvd writers. This strategy of using a deal with the directors as leverage will lose you any support you might have among the more moderate working writers.

The writers have taken their big issue -- DVD residuals -- off the table. So can't you just step up and put a sensible, viable, and fair offer on the table that deals with the other key issues of jurisdiction and new media?

This should not become a contest over who has the best strategy. You want points for your plan to make a deal with the directors? Okay: kudos on a great tactic. Tell your hardliners we're impressed.

Now can the moderates on both sides please get back to talking?

Read more strike coverage on the Huffington Post's writers' strike page.

Comments

[JoanneS]

I need Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert back as soon as possible. I can't face the primaries without them.

[freon500]

The whole thing is pretty ridiculous. On the one hand you have the writers trying to write good material and on the other you have the networks et-al through their proxies the editors often grinding it down with their feet into the ground, editing out the good stuff and inserting their political agenda into the work. Demonising some poor people on the other side of the world and declaring them 'enemies' so that the war machine, the real profit maker, can continue churning out weapons systems add nauseum. Making good stuff is secondary and the American public could care less about quality, as long as their programs have enough canned laughter.

[3Ons]

Oh, sorry for the typos -- 'alien' -- yes, I know how to spell it, but only those with zero self-esteem pessimistically tunnel-vision their entire existence on perceiving 'flaws' -- real or imagined -- in others, in the pathetic attempt at making themselves out to 'look' or 'feel' SUPERIOR, ignoring messages and casting-out messengers over any stupid excuse, such as typos/splg/words/clothes/looks -- any excuse will do -- proving zero self-esteem and zero integrity and that one's entire existence is the religion of HATE and god is FALSE/FAKE.

Nothing in life is 'perfect' and teaching people to 'aspire to be perfect' is the same as training people to 'aspire' to do humanly-impossible things -- therefore brainwashing to teach kids how to hate themselves and pessimistically tunnel-vision focus their entire existence in perceiving 'flaws' in others in the pathetic attempt at making themselves out to 'look' or 'feel' SUPERIOR -- proving zero self-esteem and zero integrity.

And that's exactly the 'quality' of Hollywood Writing.

Look at the 'late-night' so-called 'comics.' Their so-called 'humor' is saying mean, spiteful, scornful, hateful crap about others, peers in their same profession, adding canned-laughter and claiming it's 'normal.'

There is nothing 'normal' about it.

Kind Regards,
Clayton Winton

[3Ons]

The criteria used to hire these types of writers is highly disturbing. Violence is presented as 'entertaining' and being mean to others is promoted as 'funny.' There are no other choices nor options. Even the ad-agencies have mimmicked that subtle hatefulness, showing somebody tripping/falling/getting-hurt and adding canned-laughter, proving sadism, as though it 'sells products' or something.

That is 'bully-mentality,' scorning others in the pathetic attempt at making one's self out to 'look' or 'feel' SUPERIOR, in defiance of all that we hold dear under our Constitution per Jefferson'sPROMISE.

The contradictions between what we all know is amusement and entertainment, verses what these writers promote as such, that all differences/uniqueness/alein are targets of scorn and ridicule and subtle-hatefulness, twists reality into the TwilightZone.

No other profession would pay for that warped product/service.

So, with that in mind, what type of 'negotiations' do you honestly think will result?

Kind Regards,
Clayton Winton
Priest River, ID
[e-mail]

[Blackspeare]

This whole business is a fiasco built on archaic copyright and licensing laws that have created a source of never ending income through the concept of residuals. The original intent of copyrights was to protect intellectual property from plagiarism when it took considerable time to create such works and not just a week or two!

In light of today"s information and communication technology, writers and composers can turn out works in days and for this should they receive a lifetime of residuals? The prime example of this distortion is Merv Griffin, who in about 10 minutes, composed the theme song for the game show, "Jeopardy." Every time that theme is played he received a royalty. Even he couldn"t keep a straight face when he related, during an interview, that 10 minutes of work resulted in several million dollars of income over the years. Another good example is Jerry Seinfeld and he makes Griffin look like a poor boy! No doubt he worked hard for 9 or 10 years, but should that entitle him to a lifetime of income for doing nothing. He did get paid a pretty good salary during the show-----ain"t that enough?

What"s wrong with this picture?! I may be old fashion, but I believe you get paid when you produce not stay at home.

[Pneumaticus]

If you watch TV or go to the movies today, you can see the corporate bean counters and their Wall Street wizards are already phasing out the writers with idiotic computerized fantasies and endless talk and "reality" shows. Soon they'll be back to wrestling and Wallace Beery.

[AmySp]

Great post. Thanx for laying it out so clearly.

[RedWhiteandBlueState]

One last point. If a writer has a project, which he / she created and owns. There is never a gun to their head forcing them to sign a contract with one who might actualize that project or usher it to the public. (Producers) Writers can always say "no", I won't sell until you give me the new media points I deserve. Why isn't this happening? Perhaps because in the minds of some producers, there's always another project, another writer... Only very few become passion projects.

Why don't more writers, especially the huge show runners and multi-multi millionaires and guys like Jon Baitz who post here all the time, why don't (didn't) they start demanding this clause as part of their own deals, have the precedent set and the rest of the union comes along? They could say, you like my hit show? No more until I get this clause. Why isn't that happening? Why are the better off members of the union not putting their foot down? And in fact, use the only leverage I see that they have - proven hits - My sense? Because none of those writers are too concerned. When this is over they'll still have their projects, but some of their lesser members will be pushed out. Now that's what I call solidarity.

[christonabike]

Why did the writers take DVD residuals off the table? Seems to me that would logically be owed to writers and performers, just like series work pays residuals.

[nemo1043]

Finally, Ari gets it.

[The Collinbrandt]

I will come down on the side of people in any union before I will corporate big shots that make several times the money people like the writers make but, contribute nothing to society(including their shareholders in most cases). This is the question I pose to our larger society "why is it the owners of capital make so very much more than the creators of capital?". Most owners of capital inherit their capital like Mr. Murdoch or, are lucky enough to be on the ground floor of someone who is really talented and generous to their executives like Walt Disney. Why can't they admit they do not generate wealth but simply manage it? (Manage to get wealth from the hard working and talented transfered into their own accounts).

[falco]

Great post RW&BState! I'd like to add to it by asking the writers of America to help their own cause by stopping the "doublespeak". Instead of "labor disiputes", call it "management disputes". Instead of mamagement making "offers" while labor issues "demands", tell it like it is - management "demands" and labor "offers". Words and the impressions they make - visual, emotional, etc., are powerful tools to train society into believing what "they" (greedy heartless corporate vulture capitalists) want you to believe. Think hard about how it is framed for you, and then re-frame it like it is.

[WhatdoIknow]

These guys want to do to the writers what Ron Burkle et al. did to the grocery store clerks.

They're betting that once the re-enrollment contracts from Crossroads, Windward and Marlborough and Harvard Westlakeare sent out the guild will cave.

I hope not. This is ugly and could and, if the writers have the stomach for it, will go on for a long, long time.

[arvo]

Thank you, sir. Now can you put together a coalition of agents to make the same points to Counter, one at a time, every hour on the hour until he relents to good sense? You don't have to be nasty about it, just persistent.

[BenCohenTheDailyBanter]

Amen Ari. It's sickening to see the corporate big wigs flexing their steroid pumped muscles. The pathological hatred of unions in this country is shocking to say the least. Writers are some of the worst paid workers in the country (I know, I'm one of them) and without them, all we would be left with is reality drivel. While money is being relentlessly sucked upwards towards the corporate elite, the rest are left to scrape up whatever is tossed down to them. If organized, they can demand a bigger share, which is still very little compared to the revenue they generate. Check out this article by Adam Margolis on 'The Hollywood Blog' on the The Daily Banter.com. It's an interesting perspective: http://www.thedailybanter.com/tdb/2007/11/strike-heard-ar.html