‘We’re in the midst of a huge evolution’
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Just after midnight Monday morning, Deborah Blum completed a short documentary about the strike history of the Writers Guild. By the look of things at CBS Television City on Monday morning, there’s going to be much more to add.
Blum, who has written for such History Channel programs as “Mega Disasters,” was serving as the official media spokeswoman outside the studio’s Genesee Avenue gate, where about 70 writers walked with picket lines with WGA strike signs. Thirty more writers picketed in front of the Fairfax Avenue entrance as well.
“Every major strike has coincided with a major technology breakthrough in the industry,” Blum said. “And we’re in the midst of a huge evolution right now with the Internet.”
In this neighborhood thick with television industry workers and writers, dozens of motorists honked their support for the strikers as they hollered back their thanks. “The corporations haven’t negotiated seriously up to now,” Blum said. “We’re working men and women, and it’s basically us against the huge corporations.”
Many of the striking writers have been told by WGA organizers not to talk to the media, whom they feel will be overly sympathetic to the Hollywood studios and producers because they are corporately owned. Several were feature film writers who lived close to the CBS lot and declined to talk. But some did.
At CBS’ Fairfax Avenue gate, David Harte, who writes for “The Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson,” said he wasn’t surprised the labor conflict resulted in a strike.
“We’re disappointed we have to be out here,” said Harte, who has been on the show since 2005. “We’d rather be working.”
“But,” he added. “We’ll be out here however long it takes.”
--Martin Miller