Writers Strike

Yesterday the Writers Guild of America – East held a mock debate between the WGA-E and the Alliance of the Motion Picture and Television Producers in the Rayburn House Office Building. The debaters and two protesters were striking writers from The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and the Colbert Report. The debate was moderated by former Clinton Press Secretary Dee Dee Myers. Predictably it was pretty funny (coverage here, here and here).

Unfortunately none of the stories mentioned US Rep. Steve Cohen’s (D – Tenn.) quoting his friend, the late Warren Zevon, saying that David Letterman is the funniest man alive. Kudos to Congressman Cohen for honoring a Desperado under the Eaves.

More to the point, the connection between the strike and media consolidation was noted by several of the speakers.

As I have noted elsewhere, the WGA strike and the media ownership debate have proceeded along different tracks. Many who care about the former care about the latter, and the WGA has made opposition to the vertical integration of television part of its policy agenda. But the two issues have not been formally joined.

Connecting ownership to the strike presents opportunities for opponents of media consolidation and supporters of the WGA and others who bargain with film and television companies. But the clock is ticking, the strike will end (hopefully soon) and the opportunity could be missed.

In a world in which television producers owned their shows, writers could agree to contracts with their immediate employers – Jon Stewart’s folks making a deal with Jon Stewart. But that world ended with the demise of the financial interest and syndication rules (fin-syn). Most of what most of us watch most of the time – on broadcast, cable or satellite - is owned by one of about half a dozen companies. That means that writers for The Tonight Show with Jay Leno have to negotiate with the owners of 30 Rock and Friday Night Lights. David Letterman is one of the few who owns his own show; as a result he could make a deal with the writers.

Now is the time for the WGA and the other Guilds to increase their efforts around vertical media integration. By connecting the strike to ownership the debate is expanded, new allies are engaged and new outcomes become possible.

So far the Writers Guild of America strike has primarily been about how writers should be compensated in a changing media environment; classic labor v. management disagreeing about how many resources there are and how to distribute them.

It is increasingly clear that the strike is also about media consolidation. In Deadline Hollywood Daily, Nikki Finke described a pre-taping Jon Stewart expressing dismay that the WGA would not cut a side deal with The Daily Show as the Guild did with The Late Show with David Letterman -

“It was apparent that Stewart was completely flummoxed by the Guild's decision and questioned the logic behind the rejection. But what the audience wasn't told, however, is that the two situations are very different: Comedy Central, a division of Viacom, owns Stewart's show, whereas Worldwide Pants owns The Late Show with David Letterman as well as the Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson. Viacom is one of the 8 biggest members of the AMPTP which is refusing to bargain with the WGA at present.”

A union/management dispute has defined allies and opponents and the debate is contained within those boundaries.

The media ownership debate is similarly contained. Large media companies are squared off against consumer and activist groups. It’s the usual lefties versus The Man. Code Pink regularly shows up at Congressional hearings and a woman in a French Maid’s outfit calling herself a media whore attended an FCC meeting on Halloween.

If an issue is about labor v management, Democrats and labor must support workers and Republicans and managers must support business. If media consolidation is about consumers against large corporations, executives must support consolidation and liberals must oppose it.

Of course neither dispute is that simple. Republican producers support the writers and former network executives oppose media consolidation. But the initial definition of the debates makes it difficult for those voices to be heard.

The strike gives both the WGA and media consolidation foes of all stripes an opportunity expand the bounds of their disputes.

Since the financial interest and syndication rules were fully abandoned in 1995 virtually every independent television production company has been purchased by one of the half dozen or so companies that broadcast virtually everything all of us watches on TV or has been forced to close its doors. This vertical integration has decreased competition and diminished the quality of television. It is not therefore surprising that groups like the WGA and the Caucus for Television Producers, Writers & Directors (a client of Milo Public Affairs) oppose it.

Jon Stewart’s reported rant demonstrates the strike is also about media ownership. Letterman could cut a deal with the WGA because Letterman owns his show. Stewart could not cut a deal because Viacom owns his show.

The strike presents an opportunity for advocates of independence and supporters of the WGA to expand their debates, increase the numbers of their allies, and advance both of their issues.