Daily Digest for Wednesday
Because scores of businesses rely on the industry, a long walkout would inflict pain beyond Hollywood's studio gates.
And a look at
LA TIMES NEWS:
A force play?:
A day after Hollywood’s writers went out on strike, the major studios are hitting back with plans to suspend scores of long-term deals with television production companies, jeopardizing the jobs of hundreds of rank-and-file employees whose names never appear in the credits.
The reality of a strike:
With the entertainment industry’s writers on strike, and current scripted series expected to run out of episodes by mid-January. The networks, trying to prepare themselves for a world without writers, have been busy ordering up more alternative fare than ever.
Scriptland: Striking writers take a page from the past:
For an industry at war over competing visions of the digital-age future, the sight this week of thousands of Writers Guild members whipping out their bluntest, most antiquated weapon -- picketing -- was, well, striking. Especially for a professional group typically wary of physical movement and potential exposure to sunlight. The real test is whether weeks from now, when fatigue has set in, the cupboards have emptied and the news cameras have slunk back to covering freeway chases and mayoral mistresses, the membership’s support and commitment will remain as focused as they are this week.
AROUND THE BLOGOSPHERE:
AMPTPWhat the producers group is telling the hyphenates producer-writers) they can/can’t do under their WGA affiliation, and how to quit.
Paste magazine talks about how the strike would put “Scrubs” in jeopardy.
Burbank businesses brace for the strike’s impact.
“I don’t think anybody writes this crap. They’re on strike.” Theeeeen ... pose!Video: Two WWE wrestlers mention the writers strike while in the ring. Crowd cheers.
A long strike could alter the landscape of network television by dictating an even greater reliance on reality and game shows, neither of which is covered under the WGA contract.
“That means we become less smart as a country,” says Sheri Parks, who teaches media and popular culture at the University of Maryland, College Park. She’s a fan of “Dancing With the Stars” but nevertheless fears the repercussions of a steady reality-show diet.
-- Compiled by Jevon Phillips
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