Flattery Will Get You Nowhere…

COMMENTS (19)

• Good lord, woman! Don’t you sleep?

  Comment by Anonynon — Friday November 9, 2007 @ 11:39pm PST  Reply to this post

• By the time this strike is over, the trades’ credibility will be toast.

  Comment by O anon — Saturday November 10, 2007 @ 12:24am PST  Reply to this post

• Well, rather than flattery, think of it as sincere appreciation for your hard work and consistently even handed reporting.

  While I wasn’t at Raleigh, I’ve chanted basically the same thing in my head the last several weeks.

  Thank you, Nikki Finke.

  Comment by Ed — Saturday November 10, 2007 @ 12:45am PST  Reply to this post

• you should check out the photo spread in TelevisionWeek on Monday. I’m the Design Director at TVWeek and trying to bring a social documantarian aesthetic to trade coverage. We’re documenting what’s going on – for the world to see. No judgements, just documenting. Personally I find it an incredibly historic moment.

  The showrunners strike on Wednesday was profound. I couldn’t believe I was surrounded by so many creative, talented showrunners. the talent-per-square feet was mindblowing:

  http://www.tvweek.com/talking-tv/photos/the-showrunner-strike/gallery/strike_central_27.php

  You should see the photos I got from the protest out at Fox today. I’ve been out shooting almost every day and today I sent a great photographer out to take in the scene at Fox. photos up on Monday.

  Comment by chad rooney — Saturday November 10, 2007 @ 12:59am PST  Reply to this post

• Anonynon,

  When the news is there, when there’s much to report, you don’t sleep.

  I work on a much smaller scale than Ms. Finke, for a newspaper in the Santa Clarita Valley, but when there’s so much to write, you just pick whatever time you think you can sleep and even then just grab a few small hours, wake up and continue on.

  Comment by Rory L. Aronsky — Saturday November 10, 2007 @ 1:55am PST  Reply to this post

• I agree, my respect for Variety is in the toilet right now and I’m about to flush.

  Comment by Mla28 — Saturday November 10, 2007 @ 2:37am PST  Reply to this post

• I just heard Tom O’Neill from “In Touch” on MSNBC. His grasp of the facts falls along the line of Variety & Reporter. God watch over the writers. I have come to believe that only Congress can rescue you by stopping this consolidation of media.

  Go Mighty Writers!!!

  Comment by shortgirl — Saturday November 10, 2007 @ 5:38am PST  Reply to this post

• I don’t think we’re going to have to wait that long!

  Comment by Karen — Saturday November 10, 2007 @ 6:21am PST  Reply to this post

• I’ve turned in my subscription to Variety as well and whenever I see that rag in Barnes & Noble from now on, I’m going to make a very loud (and filthy) pronouncement of its “ethics” so everyone around me hears.

  Comment by Non WGA Writer — Saturday November 10, 2007 @ 6:58am PST  Reply to this post

• Maybe some of us should picket in front of the trades next week.

  And let’s not leave their L.A. Times out of this; their coverage has been amazingly shitty. It’s all whimsical human-interest bullshit.

  Comment by Jake — Saturday November 10, 2007 @ 7:08am PST  Reply to this post

• “Good lord, woman! Don’t you sleep?”

  She most certainly does not — and god bless her for it.

  Comment by an incredibly grateful reader — Saturday November 10, 2007 @ 7:22am PST  Reply to this post

• YEAH – NOBODY SEEMS TO CARE. SORRY – WRITERS. BUT AT LEAST SHE HAS GIVEN MULTI-MILLION DOLLAR SHOWRUNNERS LIKE SHAWN RYAN, SETH MACFARLANE AND SHONDA RHIMES THE OPPORTUNITY TO BE IDEALISTIC AND HYPOCRITICAL ALL AT THE SAME TIME. I WOULD LIKE MORE REPORTING ON THE STRIKE – FOR EXAMPLE: HOW MANY PEOPLE HAVE LOST THEIR JOBS? HOW MUCH MONEY DO THESE SHOWRUNNERS MAKE? WHY DOES THE WGA ALLOW MEMBERS IN THEIR UNION WHO HAVEN’T WRITTEN A WORD IN YEARS? HOW DOES THIS STRIKE COMPARE TO PAST LABOR UNION STRIFE? WHY THE HELL WAS JESSE JACKSON AT THE RALLY?

  Comment by a joke — Saturday November 10, 2007 @ 9:43am PST  Reply to this post

• Sorry for the cross-posting everyone, but I must give a shout-out to Chad Rooney, who is indeed doing a fine job covering the strike over at Television Week. TVW’s James Hibberd is about the only reporter besides Nikki who doesn’t take the press handouts from either side as gospel. Keep it up, guys!

  Comment by eric estrin — Saturday November 10, 2007 @ 9:46am PST  Reply to this post

• I wonder if the trades will release the true number of cancellations they’ve received because of their terrible contract/strike coverage. I’m out. Two friends said they were cancelling on Friday. It’s not a hard decision. Even before this mess, Nikki had better pilot pick up info, for example, than the trades even had online. BTW — how about that LA Times? Not a word about yesterday’s rally in the news or California sections. One article in the business section. I guess this isn’t “news.” So much for the Tribune Co.’s stated goal of making the LAT a more responsive local paper. It’s just another crappy corporate tool. Nice of them to help us prove the importance on on-line communication. As always, thanks Nikki.

  Comment by another hyphenate — Saturday November 10, 2007 @ 10:10am PST  Reply to this post

• Hey “a joke” — think you can type in lower-case letters like a grown-up? Or is turning of the Caps Lock the job of some other union?

  Comment by Jake — Saturday November 10, 2007 @ 12:06pm PST  Reply to this post

• Yeah, and as soon as the strike is over then subscriptions for Variety will soar back up. You seem to forget that THOSE people have to make a living too.
  Or do you think they can feed their kids on air sandwiches, like the PAs and the grips and all the other “lower-end” folk are going to be doing soon?

  Writers, you have a hard, hard job, but YOU chose your career path. YOU. No one made you do it.

  Comment by whatever — Saturday November 10, 2007 @ 1:57pm PST  Reply to this post

• “A joke” –

  The writers have fired no one. The studios fired employees as a means of punishing people who had nothing to do with this conflict. Many showrunners are continuing to pay their staffs out of their own pockets and will insist on their being rehired after the strike. These showrunners stand to gain nothing personally from this strike. The money they make in residuals is far outweighed by lost producing fees, to say nothing of the lawsuits they now face. They are sacrificing for the %90 of writers who are middle-class. But of course you side with the studios. You’ve been getting raped for so long that you’ve convinced yourself the rapist loves you. Wake up, my friend, for your own sake.

  Comment by anaonona — Saturday November 10, 2007 @ 4:35pm PST  Reply to this post

• “a joke” and “whatever” are plants by the studios

  Comment by fromtheinside — Saturday November 10, 2007 @ 6:04pm PST  Reply to this post

• hey, “whatever” aka studio shill:

  the folks at Variety “chose” their career path, as you say we writers did. They are free to publish with journalistic integrity or the forces of a free market will shift elsewhere (for example, to Nikki Finke)

  There are disturbing Communist undertones to your rant – steady employment regardless of merit with a meek thank you to Big Brother.

  The studios can end this strike any time and re-employ all the people who THE STUDIOS fired.

  Comment by writers stand strong — Saturday November 10, 2007 @ 6:15pm PST  Reply to this post