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Below is the new ad seen at AMPTP.org and soon in print that the Big Media moguls are running. ”How ironic that a couple weeks ago the WGA was trying to conquer the moguls by portraying them as divided. Now, as evidenced by the ad, the moguls have never been more united at a time the organizers are hoping to divide and conquer,” an AMPTP source tells me. Just one problem: legal sources tell me the ad also exposes potential issues relating to collusion, price-fixing, and anti-trust among the Big Media companies who are supposed to be business competitors. It also once and all establishes that the AMPTP, rather than a supposed umbrella group for 350 production entities as it claims, is really just what I’ve been saying all along: a handful of moguls who control Hollywood because of infotainment consolidation brought on by the lifting of financial syndications rules — Peter Chernin of News Corp/Fox, Jeff Zucker of NBC Universal, Les Moonves of CBS Inc, Brad Grey of Paramount Pictures, Barry Meyer of Warner Bros, Harry Sloan of MGM, Michael Lynton of Sony Pictures Entertainment, Bob Iger of Walt Disney Co. So think about it: these 8 guys have most everyone’s livelihoods in their hands and all they’re doing is boasting about how great their 4th quarters are going to look because of those pesky salaries and productions costs they didn’t have to pay. Why, they’ll probably get bigger bonuses for perpetuating the strike by walking out of the talks. And maybe — if they’re really really lucky, and their collective plan to overhaul the movie and TV business succeeds — they’ll figure out a way to provide entertainment without those expensive “assets who all go home at night” entirely.
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You know what would help with that? Going back to the table. What a load of crock. I hope all the studios fold underneath them as the courts take them for everything they’re worth.
I think the WGA should point out how interesting it is that about 342 other companies in the AMPTP did not sign this letter of unity.
And I bet they weren’t asked to.
They not only bully writers, they bully their own members.
Yeah, are they just hoping that everyone’s too stupid to realize they walked away from the negotiations, or what?
*rolls eyes*
Anyone else find it kind of odd they felt they had to do this? After weeks of claiming OUR membership was falling apart, they need to publicly announce they aren’t? Who are they trying to convince and what’s the point?
“Methinks…”
Oh, and I’ve said this before, but, just how is that ‘fair and just agreement’ supposed to be reached if they aren’t at the table negotiating it?
This was a stupid move on their part. It only shows collusion and conspiracy by a those powerful few who speak for and control so many careers with no responsibility to those 342 other companies represented by the AMPTP or the thousands of other people suffering because of their obstinance and pomposity. Who is this ad for?
I agree with “WGA Ed” – “Who are they trying to convince and what’s the point?”
“Common Sense” stated :
“What you call defeatism I call realism. The DVD issue, or the concession thereof, was indeed our strongest card, because it impacted the studios in the one place we were capable of making them feel it: their bottom line. The fact that it achieved us zilch has nothing to do with the value of DVDs as a negotiating tool and EVERYTHING to do with the fact that our negotiators bungled it, pure and simple.
Here’s where we agree: the only way forward is to be proactive. I say the best way to do that is to jettison the issues that for various reasons are absolute losers for us, and make the best deal we can on the one issue that truly matters for us and future generations of writers: new media. You apparently, feel the best way to do this is to follow the failed strategies of the very people who, however well-intentioned they are, got us into this mess in the first place.
I can almost here GWB saying “Stay the course” when I read your post. So let me get this straight. Instead of spending the next four weeks negotiating a deal that will allow us to support our families, we will spend the next four months delivering pencils, filing NLRB complaints whose chances of success are marginal (at best), and trying to get Les Moonves (Les Fucking Moonves!) to cut a side-deal with the writers?
Yeah, that sounds like a winner….”
Common Sense -
Realistically speaking, if the DVD issue was indeed our “ace in the hole” and the WGA’s strongest playing card… then why did we so irresponsibly throw it out? Although I do agree it was foolhardy to sacrifice that issue so readily, I do not believe our leadership was so incompetent that they didn’t have a auxiliary plan. It is quite possible we are seeing this plan B enacted with the saturation bombing of the NLRB complaint, the Letterman deal, jacked AMPTP website, open offer to deal with the studios individually, and the call for DGA to hold off their own negotiations.
The longer the DGA remains mute with the AMPTP, the closer we get to SAG’S concurrent contract expiration. Certainly, the AMPTP wants a deal in place with them (and the WGA) before then. There are other issues to contend with as well. Obviously, the WGA is being very proactive… and it could prove that this is only their opening barrage. Is this the failed strategy you speak of? Only time will tell us that. To prematurely judge the outcome before all the results are in and concede defeat is well… defeatist and silly.
Again, the value of DVD residuals will pale in comparison to the “unknown” potential of the internet and digital media. As we have already witnessed in the music industry, album sales have subsided drastically over the last few years. When you witness artists like J-Lo flooding the airwaves with television commercials prompting their fans to get online and download their new record, you have to admit that the jig is up on CD’s. DVD manufacturers (as well as Blu-Ray and HD DVD) will soon face the same predicament. You can’t fight the emergence of new technology… you can only try and adapt to it. Just ask any one of the old telephone companies or the numerous early countries (the hapless French) that unfortunately succumbed to the German blitzkrieg.
Lastly, it wasn’t the failure of the WGA’s leadership that got us in this current predicament… it was the unwillingness of the AMPTP to offer even the slightest semblance of a fair and respectable deal… by anyone’s standards. You seem to only grasp the now, while I favor protecting our future. Ole George W. advocates “staying the course” to help protect his own legacy. The WGA doesn’t have that luxury. They’re staying the course because it appears to be the only path left untaken. The others were roadblocked. Now, we are fighting to simply co-exist as a prominent member of this industry. To make a bad deal now, could be construed as mass suicide on the writer’s part.
Yeah, that sounds like a real winner…
- Sloop John B
Legal must have approved this — these guys don’t do anything before running it by legal. So, to the lawyers out there — why did they sign this when it’s clear evidence of collusion? Anyone remember Sotheby-Christie case –?
Same Arrogant ass****s.
Same Tired Bull****
Same Pathetic PR Campaign
One Common Goal
Break the Entertainment Unions
*******************************************************
Mo-gul -noun – a bump or mound of hard snow on a ski slope.
If the WGA is smart they’ll offer an “interim agreement” to every production company town. All the agreement has to say is the the production company will abide by the terms and condition of the “final” negotiated agreement.
As long as the production companies are guaranteed that they won’t be rendered uncompetitive by getting stuck with a deal that’s worse than anybody else, there would be scores (maybe hundreds) of companies willing to sign up today.
Let the “Big 8″ sit on the sidelines and stew for a while everybody else gets back in the game.
Nikki,
The moguls are putting on a smug front but are running scared. They won’t say it right now because that’s the game…but their parent company masters know the truth.
Media Daily News reported on December 12 that General Electric CEO Jeff Immelt told investors on Tuesday that he is cutting profit projections for NBCU for the fourth quarter, citing the “impact of the strike.”
This is the real news!
I couldn’t seem to find Lionsgate, The Weinstein Company, Gaumont, 2929 Productions/Magnolia Films, United Artists or the Yari Film Group listed on that list of mogul signatures. Are they not part of the popular crowd too?
Who wants to play “Let’s Make a Deal”?
- Sloop John B
HA HA HA HA HA!!! Lehane, this isn’t the Kerry campaign. Different assets, Different Comnpanies, Different strokes…” HA HA HA HA!!! These are multi-billion dollar companies that no one identifies with and no one votes for. You can’t make anyone empathisize with them. Who is this ad written for? Maybe it’s for “writers” lamely trying to change our minds about the strike? Or is it for the general public who could give a shit about the strike except that they are missing Lost? Or maybe it’s for stock holders who are already starting to sell because of the way the over the hill moguls are bungling a simple contract negotiation with one union? Whoever the ad is for — no one’s buying it Lehane.
Eight Jackasses: One common goal: Break the unions.
Good luck. You really need to buck up and get some real PR people in. Your PR campaign is pathetic. We writers are cringing at how bad it is. Maybe you can hire a writer….oh… right…well then maybe a couple of more spin doctors because the ones you have now just aren’t cutting it. It’s actually sad.
So if thats not a “cartel” what is it?
Nikki, you keep repeating Moguls or producers as if any of them would ever come down off their golden toilets…
Who are the weasels in the room for the AMPTP? A bunch of high priced lawyers who have never PRODUCED anything! Right? Seriously, who are they?
Please name the list of union busting lawyers in that room. (And how much money do they make anyway – they are getting paid to NOT work!)
They shouldn’t get to be called producers at all. Evah.
How’re they gonna reach that goal without sitting at the negotiating table?
Hard to reach an agreement (“just” or otherwise) when you refuse to sit in a room and bargain towards same.
Patrick Meighan
Culver City, CA
Flaccid italic font does not convey strength.
Gave me a headache just looking at it.
They obviously don’t understand the ‘show’ part of ‘show business’.
Douchewipes.
everyone seems to be all over this one. yeah we may be seeking division BUT IN AN EFFORT TO MAKE DEALS AND GET PEOPLE BACK TO WORK. We’re not trying to create divsions, LIKE THE AMPTP IN ORDER TO BREAK PEOPLE’S spirits, to hurt them writers and below the liners alike so they’ll turn on writers. The amptp is f-ing DISGUSTING.
Sounds more like a pledge, much like the “Pencils Down” ads.
They’re forcing the weaker players like CBS and MGM to publicly state their allegiances, so it’ll make it harder for them to break free of the cartel when the pain starts to increase.
Their ad feels like a request for investigation from the SEC for collusion and anti-trust violations.
These eight people just pleaded guilty to every charge that Nikki pointed out and more. Hope to see you in jail soon, Peter, Bob, Brad, Michael, Barry, Leslie, Harry, and Jeff.
Time for the antitrust division of the Justice Department to look into this. Especially if, as Nikki said recently, Brad Gray at Paramount (Viacom) isn’t allowed to do anything that Les Moonves (the CEO of a COMPLETELY SEPARATE COMPANY) doesn’t approve of. Just because Sumner Redstone controls both doesn’t mean that they both don’t owe a fiduciary duty to their shareholders first and foremost. This could get ugly — look for the feds to get involved sooner rather than later. I know that I, for one, intend to file a formal “request for investigaton” on Monday.
Re that ad: Methinks the AMPTP doth protesteth too much.
I don’t get it. Who exactly are they lying to? They can’t think anyone on either side believes this, can they?