Strike Me Out

Well, I don't know much about 'the show biz', other than the basics; there are as many ways for liars to lie, and for the weak to take runs at power as there are in any other world, with the possible exception of academia, which is the worst of all. But I do know a little about life, and outside of Hollywood - it is going on. And it's terrifying.

Millions of kids remain uninsured in this country, and we are embroiled in a war that WILL go on and on, with no real end in sight, for at very least the next decade. That war could soon expand to include yet another cool and exciting enemy nation, Iran. Our economy is not-so-delicately poised to swan-dive towards the bottom of the ever-emptying pool.

Personally, in terms of things to believe in and get "jazzed" about; I am lining up behind a candidate for president mostly because I admire her brilliant ability to be ruthlessly and cynically practical, not because she's an inspiration, god forbid. I sorta hope she may become a benign and centrist version of Prime Minister Thatcher. She's, at this point, nearly as tough.

I digress. That's life. Show biz is show biz.

In the show-biz, there are crooks, bullies, hypochondriacs, victims and murderers everywhere you look. It's Chinatown, Jake. Cowardice is as powerful as loyalty, and the entire industry suffers from an undiagnosed form of attention deficit disorder. Most of what we make is of questionable value. And sometimes it looks like it was made by zombies. And yes, yes, yes, I am a (skeptical) advocate for the strike, but I find John Ridley and Ari Emanuel in their Huffington posts not without a certain "truthiness" in their pronouncements about the damage and futility about to come.

On measure, I'd rather be on the side of the writers in this one than on the side of the giant corporations -- whose functionaries should be as gracious as a goddamn group as they are when you have dinner with them one on one. (But at dinner, they are usually having it with you simply because they need you.) Mostly I feel for the honorable and (often) lesser-paid men and women of other unions; hair dressers, grips, drivers, caterers, etc, who are forced to make moral choices in tough times. About picket lines and how to get past them, or not. And whatever other sector of the trickle-down economy is going to be hurt in the collateral damage.

Yeah, I am for the strike. But deep down, I have to admit, my heart is not here in this fight, even though I have a big dog in it, in the form of a TV show on one of the networks. I just don't much care for groups of policy makers, and I don't like pissing contests; they're vulgar and they smell bad. I've seen too much other stuff in my 46 years. Been depressed, broken-hearted, watched the dying die and the living live So. Re: The Strike-Out: There will be a war, and then a peace, and I think the endgame will be sooner rather than later. After all, he said slyly, nobody wants desolation. (Or do they?)

But like all ugly and brokered cease-fires, it will be based in mutual fear and loathing rather than a new kind of thinking. I'm gonna take a guess and bet there won't be any big winners, and there will always be new and magical ways for bright and cold-hearted sparks in huge corporations to hide money from credulous artists. Ever was it thus. Smart people tell me that pretty soon there won't be any networks, and this is an end-days battle for what's left of a dying empire. Everyone knows it, apparently. Soon, I am told, the artists will just partner up and it'll all be on-line and the studios will have to buy into a new game, at a new table, in a new part of town. Whatever.

Yeah, yeah, yeah - I want people who write movies and TV to get paid what they deserve, and they deserve a lot more of the future-markets than the producers want to give, or even discuss. But I want better citizens a lot more than I want better WGA contracts. I want better politicians, and I want better (higher paid!) school-teachers, and better health-care and better fuel consumption and more national service and less national entitlement. I want this country to regain it's stature in the world, and to lose some goddamn weight and start eating well. I want the tax codes to be re-written so that Warren Buffet's secretary doesn't pay a higher percentage of her income than her boss. That is a picket line I could get enthusiastic about. I want real separation of church and state. Less rich people. And honest generals.

If (in my vast ignorance) I have offended any good readers, which seems pretty much a given in the odd and vituperative world of stone-throwing and glass-houses that is the culture of commentary on the HuffPo, I will paraphrase the good Reverend Jackson and say "God hasn't finished making me yet" to those to whom I do not say, "Yeah? What have YOU done lately?" Two lines I find myself falling back on more and more.

Read more thoughts about the strike on Huffington Post's writers' strike opinion page

Comments

[TroubledTexan]

Jon,

As a member of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAMAW) I support the WGA.

As for your wants: Whats's the old saying?

You can want in this hand and sh__ in the other.

I didn't say that to be hateful.

George Dubya has made that a reality.

Troubled

[NoPCZone]

JRB- love your show, one of the few things on TV I make time to see.

That aside, as someone living in Arkansas, do not trust Hillary Clinton. She is not a progressive or a pragmatist- she is an overly ambitious wannabe without portfolio.

When Bill was the Governor she sat on the board of Wal-Mart- probably the most worker (ad Union) hostile large company in the US. Why didn't she use her position at the time to improve the work situation for one of our nation's largest employers? She didn't because she is a GOP-Lite, DLC-type just like her husband.

[kobe8lal]

RB - I would like an answer cuthbertallgood's post. Do you have a show in which you are a producer and a writer? How does a WGA strike affect you?

Your failure to disclose this in your article seems to put you right into your own definition: "Well, I don't know much about 'the show biz', other than the basics; there are as many ways for liars to lie..."

Did I just hear one from you, pal?

[esl]

Great writing, great ideas. Thanks

[devilyousay]

Regarding the strike, since when is it not OK to suppport a Union looking for fare wages? IF these guys were miners, hospital cafeteria staff or another occupation not often in the public eye or deemed entertainment, you'd be screaming for fair wages. How about the kids of the writers? If there's no writers, how do the stage hands, lighting guys and drivers get work on a production? THe overflow from writer's work is staggering.

And for those who want to see indies take over...the problem isn't with writers in the industry, it's with producers who redevelop the writers' work because they think they know more. The decision makers are OKing the crap, not the writers.

And lastly, there's a lot of indie crap too. The only difference, Indie productions are making even less of a living than people in the system.

[gladiatorpodolsky]

My eldest son made a million dollars last year writing for some half-assed tv series. What the hell does he need? It's like a baseball players strike

[cuthbertallgood]

JR-
This is a pretty amazing statement. Since you have characterized the replies here as 'stone throwing in glass houses', I will offer that many of the featured posters spin like Christmans tops and shy away from full disclosure.
Would it be too awful of me to point out that you are right now both a writer AND a producer, involved in a project that will be stalled by the strike? Would it be too honest to give the readers an idea of your own salary, which would stun most readers as it would be more in a week than they make in a year? Maybe two years?
I'd say that the WGA going without contract improvement will not help us get 'better citizens' anymore than if you gave up your- admit it- incredibly lucrative, wildly enriching, gig.
So no wonder your heart is not in it. You don't need the benefits the stirkers seek. In a way they seek them from you, or at least your show, and at that show you are the Executive. The Showrunner.
I just think it is a cheap shot to ask others to go without what you already have because of unrelated greater world problems. When you cut your deal with the Network, did you worry about 'better citiznes' or 'honest generals' or did you just think about the boon to you and your family, like every other working stiff?
I'm happy that you have yours JR, you are a good writer. A shame that you don't see that others may want just a fraction of what you have. A shame that you criticize them for asking for a small part of what you get for doing the same job. Maybe you can buy them all some cake to eat, Marie.
Oh, I know, those vicious Huffington replies, with all that reality and fact! How awful that common folk get to address the great and powerful with calls for basic honesty.

[HarleyPeyton]

Et tu, Robbie? I get it when Ridley dresses up obeisance in the clothes of clear-eyed realism. But this is just, I dunno, weird. The 'Why Fight A Wrong When There Are Worse Wrongs in the World' posture (rhetorical cousin to "Clean your plate, there are starving children in India") seems like a fairly wrong-footed way to view a labor negotiation. Yes, we need better politicians. (And yes, children are starving in India.) But simple fairness is worth fighting for too. Even in a context as easily -- and sometimes airily -- dismissed as show business.

[realitytrumpsbull]

I say 'let em strike', it'll open the door for
new and indy filmmakers to practice their
craft sans the relentless production line
of product-placement features...

[ag303]

Margaret Thatcher was of course neither benign nor centrist, and I'm still not sure I get your support of Hillary. But thanks, Robbie, for another great post.

[grendl]

Be careful what you wish for.

If we had better teachers, and smarter children, 90 per cent of the WGA would be out of a job. Because then unholy crap like " Saw 4" wouldn't be number one at the box office, and better movies would rule the day. "Two and a Half Men" would've been off the air in ten minutes.

As it stands there is no qualitative standard in the business, but a quantitative one. What makes the most money is all the corporate giants care about. Telling stories with messages, passing along wisdom to generations of children not so much unless, as was the case this weekend, the message is be careful not to get your limbs hacked off by a homicidal maniac.

Writers have no clout in the business, mainly because quality is mostly happenstance, at least with regard to box office success. In television with shows like 'The Sopranos', and "the Daily Show", its evident there does exist an audience of clear thinking intelligent human beings out there who value a good story and decent writing.

But getting those individuals to risk traffic, and a noisy cineplex, and cast the vote that counts at the box office is another matter. So the smart people stay home, and get trickle down entertainment, while friends of Adam Sandlers continue to get jobs and are allowed to call themselves writers.

The WGA is a joke.