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November 9, 2007
I was sorry to learn that you believe that the Guild erred in not consulting AFTRA before releasing our statement concerning Ellen DeGeneres. I assure you that we have great respect for AFTRA, its members and staff, and we are deeply grateful for the generous support of the many AFTRA members supporting our strike by withholding their services and/or joining our picket lines and rallies.
As I indicated in the telephone conversation to which you referred, it is not the Guild’s intention to involve any union, such as your own, in our efforts to encourage individuals to withhold their services. What we ask of them are acts of individual conscience. There are unions with much narrower no strike clauses which we have approached directly and have been able to help us. I am sorry that I did not elaborate on this point in our conversation and make sure that I was understood.
Moreover, with regard to Ms. DeGeneres, she is a Writers Guild member as well as an AFTRAn. The writing of her show is always done by Writers Guild members and, therefore, constitutes struck work. Beyond any issue of membership, there is the obvious ethical issue, which is clearly present in Ms. DeGeneres’ decision to write and produce a show without writers in the face of an industrywide walkout by 12,000 writers. Such a decision cannot be redeemed by your spirited and eloquent defense. I understand that AFTRA cannot call upon Ms. DeGeneres to respect our strike. But the Writers Guild can and must.
Mona Mangan
WGAE Executive Director
Editor-in-Chief Nikki Finke - tip her here.
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Voyeur,
Ellen does not “write” for AFTRA. They are not the writers’ guild; the Writers Guild is the writers’ guild.
Dan
Why is everyone so down on Ellen but no one says a word about Oprah, or Regis and Kelly, or Tyra, or anyone else? Are they doing anything different then Ellen?
Ellen has an obligation, and she has a show, and if she doesn’t do her job as host, she will lose it.
TEAM ELLEN!
This strike is going to be absolutely disastrous, and here’s why.
The only thing this strike means in the mainstream, is the decline of non-interactive, scripted entertainment, and the marginalization of television as a medium, and the film industries as a whole.
This is what nobody here seems to be grasping.
In the last twenty years, the video game industry has grown from a marginal player for the finite entertainment dollars out there on the open market to the largest entertainment industry operating within the United States today, both in terms of number of people employed, and the total scope, (and worth) of the industry.
The younger generation (under 35) has shifted its spending, dramatically.
When all of this is said and done, those entertainment dollars, from that most important demographic might dry up completely.
I already know enough people in their twenties and early thirties who spend hour upon hour logged into Xbox live and playing things like Halo 3 and Bio Shock, many of whom would scarcely notice this strike if it carried on for a number of years.
The amount of time people spend consuming material produced by the traditional media, whether it is delivered via traditional mediums or posted on the internet is simply SHRINKING.
There are just too many alternatives to WGA produced entertainment on the marketplace for this strike to be worthwhile.
I understand that the WGA wants a piece of the pie when it comes to digital distribution, but your union simply fails to understand that the pie as a whole (the audience that consumes your content, or more accurately, the time they allot to such content) is simply shrinking.