The WGA Advocate meets Machiavelli

Just received an anonymous email from someone billed as The WGA Advocate. I've posted it in full under Opinions from the Front, but here's his/her strike theory:

Since "Big Business" (multinational conglomerate organizations) bought out the studios, they have not had the chance to do what they normally do when buying major companies and that is to fire almost everyone, give middle management promotions (without raises) to fill the gaps of the fired bosses and their big salaries, then integrate a production pipeline with a simple, efficient, NORMAL business model.

This is only possible NOW because until recently there were still independent movie studios who accepted the film business model norms.

In short, they are forcing writers (and soon actors) to strike so they have an excuse to fire the people who work behind the gates, not the artists. They just want to blame the artists for firing half of L.A. over the span of the strike. Think about how much money they will save.

Big Business can now force majeure more than writers, but expensive producers and their entire teams as well. Why not streamline production and run all projects directly through a studio personnel only? One simple pipeline of product and production run by story editors and savvy accountants (the new studio producer/executive)? It would save these studios a fortune. No more independent producer deals, instead strictly studio production teams. We ALL know that this is what Big Business does best. So they force the artists to hike to they can clean house and redesign studio lot efficiency.

-- Dana Harris

Comments

[Ben]

Great breakdown of what this strike is really about. Not just a theory, this is standard operating procedure of all multi national corporations, and especially true in the case of Rupert Murdoch's. The studios want this strike.

1 - They get to wipe a whole lot of contracts off the books.
2 - They get a casus belli to fire a whole bunch of executives and producers to make the company 'lean' under the guise that the studios are going broke and have to. They aren't and don't. For additional salt in the wound, they will see their stock options take off as Wall Street creams itself at the sight of piles of canceled contracts and the exodus of well paid employees.
3 - They get to send a message to SAG and DGA that they will put up a fight (and scare those unions into taking worse contracts now and undercut our strike)

In short - They get paid, we get blamed.

Great email Advocate. Keep writing. Emails, that is.

[whatever]

LOL

[Neil]

You mean revert back to the studio system of the 1930's & 40's?

[Karen HALL]

So there IS an up side to the strike? Less notes when it's over!!!!

[stevie long]

ust like all those jericho fans sent tons of nuts to les "60 million dollar bonus" moonves to get jericho back on the air, i might suggest a simple, convenient way to have america's working people get involved.

America, most writers in the WGA make less than 75k a year--- many of us write scripts 'on spec', which means we spend all day writing, UNPAID, hoping that what we are writing will be a great script, and someday a great movie--- most of the time, the script goes unsold... many of us go a year without getting hired--- it is the residuals from our work that pays our bills during slow times, allowing us to ply our trade all day. We work hard, and we don't mind because we love what we do. But what we DO mind, is that big media is posting record profits, the CEO's boast of the 100 million dollar salaries they PERSONALLY pocket, all while crying that they don't want to give us 4 cents for each dollar they pocket....

SO, I SUGGEST everyone in America puts a call in to these GREEDY, BIG MEDIA CEO'S who want to STEAL THE INCOME of working class writers, and let them know it's not cool. We've seen enough corporate greed lately, it has to end. I'm listing their phone numbers.

now, i don't expect any of these CEO's to get on the phone with a typical American, they have nothing but contempt for them, and will steal from them any chance they get.

HOWEVER, if everyone in America dialed their phone a few times a day, which would only take a second, and ask to speak to one of these men, THEY WOULD GET SO MANY PHONE CALLS ALL DAY THAT IT WOULD SERIOUSLY INTERRUPT THEIR MILLION-DOLLAR-PER-DAY-SALARY JOB!!!!!

c'mon, it's more than just a great prank, it's time Americans had some say in what BIG MEDIA forces on them.

Americans, dial your phones: (if each American calls 10 times a day, which would only take one minute out of your day, these greedy CEO'S who want complete control of media and ALL it's profits will be BURIED WITH TWO BILLION PHONE CALLS!!!!!!

Anne Sweeney
President
Disney-ABC Television Group
The Walt Disney Company
500 S. Buena Vista St.
Burbank, CA 91521-4581
818-560-1000

Kevin Reilly
President
Fox Entertainment
Fox Broadcasting, 10201
West Pico Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA 90064-2606
310-369-1000

Bruce Rosenblum
President
Warner Bros. Television Group
Warner Bros. Studios
3400 Riverside Drive
Burbank, CA 91505
818-943-6000

Philippe Dauman
President/CEO
Viacom
1515 Broadway
New York, NY 10036-5794
212-258-6000

Leslie Moonves
President/CEO
CBS Corporation
51 West 52nd Street
New York, NY 10019-6101
212-975-4321

Jeff Zucker
President/CEO
NBC Universal
100 Universal City Plaza
Universal City, CA 91608-1002
818-777-1000

[JK]

Yeah - I feel real bad for writers who make $75K per year at a cushy job. Real tough. The average working American sure can see where you're coming from!

[Throw]

Actually, it's 4 cents on every ten or twenty dollars, but who's counting.

[throw]

I read the email you linked to.

I hear the guy. He should delete the bit about being forced to fly coach as a 'hardship' on the next rev. It doesn't engender a lot of empathy from regular folks.

The other thing that doesn't help is that so many of the letters , blog entries, youtube posts and other material used to describe the writers' situation is long-winded and frankly, badly written. serious tin ear territory.

I mean, there are 10000 writers in the writers' guild. Can't at least one or two write a good promo script for the cause? Put down the picket sign and spend an afternoon knocking out a couple of youtube videos. It's weird.