Writers Strike Enters Third Week in Divide Over Online Content

Striking writers staged a last rally in central Hollywood Tuesday before contracts talks resume next week between their union and studios and major producers. Some 4,000 people marched down Hollywood Boulevard. The writers were joined by TV and film actors and other union members. The rally comes 16 days into the strike that has been felt across the industry, with daily talk shows canceled and shooting on top-rated dramas postponed due to a lack of scripts.

On Monday, about 500 television and radio writers working for CBS News also voted to strike following their own contract dispute with the network. Here in New York, writers have walked a daily picket line in various locations across the city. Democracy Now! went to Sony Plaza yesterday and spoke to some of the writers on strike.

* Interviews with striking writers.

The Writers Guild of America will meet next Monday with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers for the first time since they went on strike. The two sides have clashed over paying writers for reruns of their work online and for original work written for the Internet. Michael Winship is the President of the Writers Guild of America, East. He joins me in the firehouse studio. Welcome to Democracy Now.

Michael Winship, President of the Writers Guild of America, East.

AMY GOODMAN: Striking writers staged a last rally in central Hollywood Tuesday before contract talks resume next week between studios and major producers. Some 4000 people marched down Hollywood Boulevard. The writers were joined by TV and film actors and other union members. The rally comes 16 days into the strike that has been felt across the industry with daily talk shows cancelled and shooting on top-rated dramas postponed due to a lack of scripts. On Monday, about 500 television and radio writers working for CBS News also voted to strike following their own contract dispute with the network. Here in New York, writers have walked a daily picket line in various locations across the city. Democracy Now! went to Sony Plaza yesterday and spoke to some of the writers on strike.

WRITER ON STRIKE: We are striking because of the situation with digital rights, digital platforming. We make no money on any of the downloads. My daughter live streams television shows on her computer at school, which they sell advertising for, which we get none of the revenue for.

WRITER ON STRIKE: My main concern is the Writers Guild has 12,000 members and you need to make $30,000 a year in Writer’s Guild earnings to get health care. $30,000. And last year, over half our membership did not make that. So half our membership does not have health care.

WRITER ON STRIKE: What the writers are asking for is completely fair and is their right. This is their livelihood. What they accomplish with this strike benefits the entire entertainment community

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WRITER ON STRIKE: Right now, writers arent getting anything for internet and new media, and my feeling is that in the next 20 or so years, the entire industry will be dominated by new media and the internet. So it’s not just us that we’re fighting for. I feel like we’re fighting for writers to come.

AMY GOODMAN: The Writers Guild of America will meet next Monday with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers for the first time since they went on strike. The two sides have clashed over paying writers for reruns of their work online and for original work written for the internet. Michael Winship is the President of the Writers Guild of America, East, joining us now in our Firehouse Studio. Welcome to Democracy Now!.

MICHAEL WINSHIP:I have actually worked in this studio in the past, so its nice to be back.

AMY GOODMAN: Well it’s great to have you back. Talk about what you are striking for.

MICHAEL WINSHIP:Well as one of the people just said in the roll-in that you did, the crux of the strike is really about our work being used in the internet and new media and getting a fair shake, a fair part of the deal. Us establishing a revenue model that allows us to share in the great amounts of money that the studios and networks are going to be making off of this. In certain areas like streaming video, when you go on to the network websites and so forth and download an episode of “The Office” for example, we do not see a dime, we don’t get anything on that because they say it is totally promotional. You look at that program on the air, on the internet and you see that it is filled with commercials, yet, we do not get a dime of that revenue because they claim it is promotional.

AMY GOODMAN: What do they get?

MICHAEL WINSHIP:They get – at least–I believe its a 70-30 split, with the network receiving the 70%, depends on who actually gets the advertising used on the side, but they usually get a big chunk of it.

AMY GOODMAN: I want to go for a minute to another clip. Striking writers are taking their cause directly to the internet, channeling their creativity into numerous short videos. On YouTube, the most popular of these videos is produced by a writer of Comedy Central’s popular satirical program, "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart” it is called – “Not The Daily Show with Some Writer”.

WRITER: Hello and welcome to what is obviously not “The Daily Show”. I am obviously not John Stewart. I’m Jason Ross, one of the show’s 14 writers. Our top story, really our only story, the ongoing writers’ strike which began last Monday after talks broke down between writers–seen here working slavishly for your entertainment and media company C.E.O.’s–captured here in their natural habitat. It is about whether writers should get paid when media companies make money using their work online. Writers think they should get paid. Corporations thing the writers should go [bleep]. And I gotta say they have a point, I mean, this is the internet, it is not about money. Online intrinsic work is measured in things like number of tears shed over Britney Spears by heartbreakingly gay teenager. [crying teenager] Although were sad over this state of affairs, we’re clearly not that sad. Besides media conglomerates say it is too soon to put a dollar value on internet content. What is that? A Viacom is suing YouTube for $1 billion for using its content online? I cannot even believe it. Unless there is some sort of “Daily Show”- style montage.

[Montage narrator] Viacom, the parent company of Comedy Central has sued YouTube for over $1 billion.—the parent company of the daily show, has sued YouTube for over $1 billion. You cannot put it on here for free. Anyone to help us make our case?

Say hypothetically, someone files a lawsuit, what would they expect, money? They would expect the protection of their rights for the future. And they might expect a deal that would reflect the value of their content.

WRITER: It may seem, Redstone’s stance contradicts his stance with the writers, but it is quite simple. When you are not paying him, you owe him $1 billion. When he is not paying you, he is not paying you.

AMY GOODMAN: Produced by a writer of Jon Stewart’s “The Daily Show” called “Not the Daily Show with Some Writer”. That was Summer Redstone they quoted, head of Viacom.

MICHAEL WINSHIP: Yes, and that was actually a bunch of the guys from “The Daily Show” did that. They shot it down at our picket last week down on Wall Street. It was terrific. One of the great things about this whole strike has been the issue has been about internet and the new media and we have shown the power of internet and new media by viral videos, like the ones that the guys at “The Daily Show” did.

AMY GOODMAN: Why did you decide, Michael Winship, to strike now?

MICHAEL WINSHIP: What we decided was – our contract ran out on October 31. And the original thought was that we would continue negotiating until the end of June next year when the contracts expire for the Screen Actors Guild and the Directors Guild. But working in conjunction with those other unions, working together, we determined that it would make more sense, that our power would be more effective if negotiations failed, to go out when we went out, which was right at the beginning of November. That was partly because we recognized this would have enormous effect on the television season and also because we realize this motion picture studios were stockpiling scripts, were planning to go into major heavy production at the beginning of the year. Normally they produce about 40 or 50 movies at the beginning of any given year. We discovered they had about 150 planned. So that it was better for us to go out now when we did when negotiations failed, than to wait.

AMY GOODMAN: CBS news writers are now talking about going on strike. How does that link to you?

MICHAEL WINSHIP: That is a separate contract. We also cover the CBS news writers and graphic artists and other folks who work at CBS news. That is about 500 of our members, both here and in Los Angeles – in New York, Washington and Los Angeles and Chicago. They have been without a contract for 2.5 years. We have been trying everything we possibly can to get management back to the table. We finally reached a point where we took a strike authorization vote, we announced the results of that vote on Monday – it was an 81% vote, about 70-75% of the membership voted. And now we hope that this will send a strong enough message to management to get them back to the bargaining table. But if we do not get a fair and respectful contract, if we dont make some progress, we are prepared to walk.

AMY GOODMAN: And CNN?

MICHAEL WINSHIP: CNN is non-union. We also cover ABC news and NBC is covered by a separate union.

AMY GOODMAN: What is happening with NBC?

MICHAEL WINSHIP: NBC is covered by NABIT. ABC we’re there also without a contract we’re also working on that front as well.

AMY GOODMAN: Broadway shows in New York that have gone dark – whats their connection?

MICHAEL WINSHIP: That is Local One with IATSE. Totally separate union, but we have been in quite vocal support of their strike against the Broadway theaters.

AMY GOODMAN: What has most surprised you in this strike?

MICHAEL WINSHIP: I was around for the 1988 strike, which was a five-month strike–very long, very difficult, very bitter and acrimonious strike. This time, the support and solidarity of the membership is much, much stronger than any of us thought would happen – its been extraordinary. And part of that has been because of the strength of people who are called the show runners, these are people who are writers and producers, who have their writing and editorial duties on a program, but also have production duties. Technically speaking, those people did not necessarily have to walk in terms of their production duties. They couldnt write, but they didnt necessarily have to. But they felt that in good conscience, they could not continue working on their programs. As a result of that, we stopped production on television programs much sooner than we anticipated.

AMY GOODMAN: So you meet on Monday?

MICHAEL WINSHIP: We meet on Monday.

AMY GOODMAN: What do you expect?

MICHAEL WINSHIP: Do not know yet.

AMY GOODMAN: Well, well certainly continue to cover it. I want to thank you, Michael Winship, for joining us. President of the Writers Guild of America, East.

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