Would have made an even stronger case with a good car chase at the end.

Well, someone on Youtube has this to say:

"definition of a terrorist: someone who creates terror, anarchy and destruction. Very much like what the WGA are doing now."

So it would appear that the WGA is not entirely innocent here. That's my lesson from Youtube for the day.

Two more ironclad counter-arguments from Youtube.

fattyhidalgo
If this has been an ongoing issue for 20 years, where do you come off pretending like it all just happened suddenly? As an engineer, if I design or build a bridge, say a bridge across the Delaware River, I don't get a residual on the 75 cents per car that crosses. You have joined a guild - your fault. You can never obtain competitive rates if you bargain collectively. the unemployed writers, the 48% shouldn't get a slice.

You people need to understand economics. Read The Fountainhead. You suffer from a bias thinking you will take from the guy who is superior to you, but you don't realize the guys who are inferior take from you. You end up with a nebulous mediocrity. Every contract should be negotiated on a one-to-one basis. The studios risk millions - without them your ideas are nothing but figments on paper.



KnightKiller1000
Exactly the writers only think and write for the scripts of the shows and movie that's why they get less money so I'm neither on this since they'll loose thier jobs soon that farmers suffer more worse than writers.

"Every contract should be negotiated on a one-to-one basis"

Heh - I'm sure every writer on that line would RELISH the opportunity to negotiate a contract with the producer, and then another with the director, and then another with each actor, then one with each advertiser. Wait, what? You're saying that one side gets to bargain collectively because we call them a "corporation," but the other side doesn't because we call them a "union"?

Most people seem to believe that all writers with work are rich and fuck models like in that terrible show Californication (the writers of that show do not deserve representation and should be sent to Cuba in duffel bags). I love that the guy told everybody to read the Fountainhead. Ayn Rand probably had no problem collecting residuals on the movie adaptation.

What makes a bigger douchebag: a management member with a copy of The Fountainhead by his desk or one with a copy of The Art of War?

Tough call, but I'd say Art of War. On the other hand, if its between Art of War and Atlas Shrugged, then the latter.

Reality show writers deserve less than zero residuals, they should be paying me. Then shot.

Game story writers deserve it though.

Ha ha! Survivor sucks. Survivorman is a good show. The point is that they do work. Some people are making all the money and the workers are not getting the percentage that they should. Whether or not you like the product or are jealous of the perceived lifestyle that these writers lead is irrelevant. I do not use gas stations and think petroleum fuel is stupid but I believe gas station attendants should be paid a livable wage and should live with a little dignity when Exxon states a 33 billion dollar profit within a single year.

Aren't some reality shows using writers? I remember Tyra Banks fired a bunch of them from her show last year when they tried to go on a WGA strike.

I forgot the word "union" in my first sentence.

All reality TV shows use writers. They write the narration, they assemble the "story lines," and they very often write the "real" dialog spoken by the subjects. Often times these writers are the bench editors of the shows themselves. They are treated like contract workers and sometimes work 12 to 16 hour days for relatively small amounts of money and zero benefits.

Editors make a lot more than that. Someone told me they make six figures. Writers make even more, but I was wondering how reality shows are able to work without story writers.

Yes it's true they do, but it's because of the WGA and the MPEG that they have such high salaries.

Very few editors make six figures, only the top feature film editors break 100K. When they are on the payroll of the big networks they make plenty. One of the strange loopholes that reality shows consist upon is that these people are neither writers nor editors.

A little rundown of the problem:

http://www.usatoday.com/life/television/news/2005-06-21-realit y-writers-union_x.htm

Where do they picket in NYC?

Oh yeah, the real turning point will come when a bunch of hacks whose only published work is an ad in the classifieds start getting work, and suddenly House does a musical episode.

I hope the WGA gets everything it wants.

Jeez, dude, read the Fountainhead already!

What about CSI:Miami? In the unlikely event they ever employed writers, would this effect them making more episodes? Would Horatio just take off his sunglasses, then stare vacantly at the camera each episode?

I love 24. Its pure stupid action. Also, they don't need writers to crank out episodes of 24, they just need Kiefer to kill warehouses full of terrorists with a pistol. They don't need writers to crank out 24 anymore so you are foiled.