Writers are cutting their own deals to develop and own content. Letterman, Leno, Stewart and Colbert are going back on the air. IATSE rails against the timing and strategy of the WGA. The DGA charts its own path. The WGA's rock star leadership is unfocussed and inept.
Things are looking good for the producers. So what should the AMPTP do now?
I gave a speech to 500 businesspeople recently. I asked for a show of hands of how many knew of the writers' strike. About 100 raised their hands. I then asked how many people had heard of the AMPTP. Not one hand was raised. Nobody outside of LA. and NYC knows who they are, and nobody cares.
When I was involved in the Wal-Mart wars, I often thought that the best thing Wal-Mart could have done was keep their mouth shut and not respond. By responding, they gave their critics more stature, prolonged the fight, and made things personal. Wal-Mart and their PR firm decided to play like Lee Atwater, and this produced publicity gaffes that would not have surfaced otherwise. Like me. Wal-Mart put me on CNN and I claimed their management was "like Inspector Clouseau." Doh! You know your PR is bad when Ron Galloway is a major part of your strategy.
The AMPTP's website has an "open letter" to the entertainment industry on its front page, signed by the heads of its eight largest production entities. Absolutely nobody cares about this letter, except the eight people who signed it. The only people reading it are WGA members. And it just deepens their anger, and creates a wider space between the two parties.
The AMPTP comments that "working families" are hurting due to the strike, thereby trying to spin a class angle on this. Ninja, please.
The AMPTP has the upper hand right now not because they are so good, but because the WGA's leadership is so bad. You don't conduct a public relations war when there is no "public" to "relate" to. The AMPTP should stop their PR releases, erase their website in favor of a simple logo and an email address. And shut their mouths. Talk to the WGA, not the public. The public is playing Guitar Hero and trying to find a Wii.
Read more about the strike on the Huffington Post's writers' strike page.
Follow Ron Galloway on Twitter: www.twitter.com/rongalloway
The news that you don't seem to get is that writers are going straight to VC and internet money to make deals, not without the WGA, but without studios. This is GOOD news for writers and the WGA. This is the death knell of the AMPTP, who are picking a fight with writers exactly when they should be trying to figure out how to remain relevant.
There will always be writers. There won't always be studios.
Bumper stickers used to ask you to "Kill Your TV". It'll off itself this January with writerless shows like Deal or No Deal and American Idol, and that's the best they have. What follows is a death knell.
You clearly don't have the first idea whether the AMPTP is winning or not.
Which writers are cutting which deals and why would that matter? Stewart and Colbert go back on (without writers!) and that shows what exactly? The Comedy Central wants them back on? Big surprise. IATSE rails against WGA? Yes, the strike is hurting IATSE members, but remember (if you ever knew) that IATSE health and pension plans are funded from residuals linked to our residuals. If writers don't get internets revenues IATSE health and pension goes down the toilet. The DGA charts its own path. The DGA members are not as dependent on residuals as WGA and SAG. But if they strike a crappy deal on residuals and WGA and SAG get a better one they are going to look pretty dumb so there is a limit to how they fold up. You have written elsewhere on your assessment of the WGA leadership being inept, but have only betrayed your own ignorance of what is happening.
And what about the things that are going great for the strike? There is practically 100% support from showrunners and TV will be shut down in January. Features are next. SAG will be joining WGA in June. Solidarity has been extremely strong with an unusually high degree of active participation and support of the leadership and its strategy and tactics (they are a bunch of very smart guys). etc etc Why such solidarity? Because the brutal truth of this strike is that pretty much every writer is extremely clear of what it is about - internet revenues. And none of us is going to let us get ripped off again the way we were with DVDs.
You could have had something interesting to say about what is actually tricky and hard to predict about the strike. There are some real interesting points to be made. But you have let your ignorance lead to you a rush to judgement.
Without writers, there are no sitcoms, no dramas, no talk shows, no nothing. (At least, anything good.) Jay Leno knows this -- without writers, he's not funny.
The AMPTE is a rump group of ignoramouses (most likely, they are also Republicans and Bush supporters) -- how much more stupid and blind can you be?