With More Competition Writers Unlikely to Strike: The WGA Has Become a WMD

Generally speaking, writers are not well known. They labor over scripts turning out their best work then hand them off to another. The audience sees actors deliver the lines without being consciously aware another wrote them. Credit is given to the actor who, in turn, may or may not credit the writer.

The Writer's Guild of America (WGA) is a group of writers in the television and movie industry. Make no mistake about it - this group is a power to be reckoned with. Supported by an even larger powerhouse, Teamster's Union, the WGA becomes a WMD (weapon of mass destruction). Like all WMD, they're not discriminate about their target. They know exactly where they're headed. Any innocence in the middle is considered collateral damage. In this case that's you and I.

Basically, Guild members want a cut each time their material is downloaded, played on a computer or in any other way depicted through today's technological world. That's what I deem surface logic: logic that appears to be balanced and quickly obtained by connecting the very obvious dots.

The problem with surface logic is that there's no big picture. Things are black or white with no gray allowed. That thinking is in direct opposition with the entire universe. The human race is colored with various shades of skin and emotional color and overflowing with multi-level diversity. Some of the greatest intelligence is found outside the boundaries of black and white. Discounting the gray is akin to cutting off the nose to spite the face as my mother liked to say.

On the surface, the reasons behind the WGA strike are clear. They've written material that is being viewed but for which they're not compensated. No one can dispute the fairness of a writer being paid for a script written. However, the disheartening reality is that life is rarely fair. The only place to find fairness to any degree is in the movies and television. Since the writers are no longer writing, even make-believe fairness is obsolete.

On the other side of this battle line is the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, AMTP for short. Perhaps it's just me but I'm thinking that using the word alliance in their title smacks of attitude. Nearly every radical uprising in the world has one side dubbed an alliance. An alliance isn't merely the formation of a group of people. An alliance is a group of people who have come together with like minds against another.

By placing the word alliance in their title they've sent the subliminal message that it is them against the writers.

We have the AMTP claiming they're trying to be fair to the WGA but they're having problems themselves with how technology has affected the entertainment industry. We have the WGA proclaiming they're not trying to be unreasonable but they only want what's fair to them. What about the audience? Whose looking out for those of us who use our hard earned money to contribute to the financial success of both sides?

How is it fair to us to stop providing entertainment for which we pay? If either side were actually concerned with fairness there would be more talk about the audience and less bickering amongst themselves. Apparently, the AMTP and WGA take fairness into consideration only when it directly applies to them.

The WGA has determined since they're not working, no one else should. They've angrily turned on any entertainer who has dared make an attempt to continue their shows during the strike. For reasons I don't fully comprehend, actors and actresses are catering to the desires of the WGA. The WGA's stand against those attempting to carry on is a supreme example of the selfishness that actually fuels their chants at the picket line. In their quest for financial gain, they're missing no opportunity to bring all of Hollywood to a screeching halt.

By forcing entertainers to adhere to what the WGA deems acceptable they are not making the audience collateral damage, they are directly attacking us. Talk about biting the hand that feeds you. The AMTP is nothing without entertainers. Entertainers are nothing without writers. But they all are nothing without an audience. The real power is in the hands of the people. Someone needs to start acknowledging that. If the audience comes together and organizes, it would be a power that would have even the strongest alliances shaking in their high priced entertainment shoes.

The heart of the problem is that to write in Hollywood you must be a part of the WGA. AMTP depends upon the WGA to provide quality writers. It's never a good idea to have a single source of anything. If there was competition, I'm willing to bet the WGA would reassess their strike. The AMTP needs to be more open to accepting scripts outside the WGA. The country is filled with aspiring writers who'd love the opportunity to write for even half of what the WGA receives in compensation. New talent, possibly even better talent, is chomping at the bit.

What would happen if we had American Writers, a program where aspiring writers all over the country had their shot at Hollywood? American Idol has certainly been lucrative, to all involved. The AMTP should follow suit and open themselves up to the possibility of discovering new talent. As American Idol has clearly demonstrated, there is excellent talent waiting to be tapped into. The industry could save thousands of dollars not only during this strike but all the time by examining new talent. There are many excellent writers across America, they merely need the opportunity to show their greatness. And that, my friend, is the big picture.