Comments (24)

• As well they should. Politics and the Rose Parade don’t mix.

  Comment by Webster — Tuesday January 1, 2008 @ 4:42pm PST  Reply to this post

• This isn’t surprising, not because it’s “big media” conspiracy. More because it doesn’t fit with the Rose Bowl parade and it doesn’t look like skywriting shows up well visually. Think about it, when the producer saw the planes overhead skywriting, she/he probably thought 1) won’t show up great and 2) it has nothing to do with my show. Might as well as skip it and go onto the next float. It’s not a big conspiracy, but an easily understood production decision.

  Comment by Nowan — Tuesday January 1, 2008 @ 5:08pm PST  Reply to this post

• I really cannot believe how little to no attention the writer’s strike has received from the mainstream press. it’s insane, and kind of sickening, that the big media is so controlled. And some people wonder why there is doubt and a lack of faith in the news outlets!

  I am just grateful I found this site. I was struggling trying to find out as a mere viewer what was going on with the strike, but then I lucked out and found this place, and now I can at least keep abreast of what is going on. Thank goodness, and thank you, Niki! At least someone out there is interested in keeping people really informed on this.

  Comment by A Mere TV Viewer — Tuesday January 1, 2008 @ 5:19pm PST  Reply to this post

• The MSM did cover 2 other protests, Cindy Sheehan’s peace protest and the protest against the Chinese float.

  Both were deemed inappropriate and were not well received by the public, so it’s probably a good thing nobody noticed.

  Waste of money. The issues are about dollars and cents, not PR or public opinion.

  Comment by Frustrated — Tuesday January 1, 2008 @ 6:22pm PST  Reply to this post

• What an awesome site to see the message displayed across the sky today.
  It was spactacular.

  Comment by Jason — Tuesday January 1, 2008 @ 6:31pm PST  Reply to this post

• Doubt tonight’s news will, but Letterman/Stewart, hmm…….

  Comment by Seph — Tuesday January 1, 2008 @ 6:45pm PST  Reply to this post

• They didn’t show the Anti-War protest with Cindy Sheehan or the Beijing Olympic protest either….. it’s not “big media” oppressing the writers… it’s one of the safest, least controversial platforms on television. Complete waste of money for the skywriters.

  Comment by Observer — Tuesday January 1, 2008 @ 7:49pm PST  Reply to this post

• Does anyone honestly believe that anything will bring the AMPTP back to the table before they start meeting with the DGA?

  Looks like the DGA talks will be starting Monday, January 7th …..

  Is there any possibility they will talk with the WGA and the DGA at the same time? Probably not.

  Or is this going to be a “sit still until we finish the DGA agreement and then we will get to you” situation.

  I have heard that the NLRB, no matter who they rule for in the WGA filing, will not force an owner back to the table if they are in active talks with another union.

  If this is the case it seems like stopping the DGA should be the number one focus right now….

  Forcing the AMPTP to have no choice but the WGA would have more impact than stopping Late Night television.

  I would rather stake my future on a knowledgable group(DGA)pushing for the WGA than the whims of late night viewers…..who have picked Leno for all these years.

  Comment by Looking for an end — Tuesday January 1, 2008 @ 7:58pm PST  Reply to this post

• It’s like the Ron Paul blimp all over again.

  Comment by C. — Tuesday January 1, 2008 @ 7:59pm PST  Reply to this post

• Well, if this had happened one or two weeks into the strike, I think the mainstream media attention would have been there. It’s old news now – the next report as far as mainstream news is concerned is when the strike is over. Anything between now and then is just inside baseball.

  Comment by Vinnie Vegas — Tuesday January 1, 2008 @ 8:43pm PST  Reply to this post

• as if there could possibly be another outcome. No loss. They’ll get theirs over the next few evenings, sometime between 11:30 and 12:30, and once again in Scottish between 12:30am and 1:30.

  Comment by anotherWGAwriter — Tuesday January 1, 2008 @ 8:53pm PST  Reply to this post

• I’m not really surprised that the networks didn’t cover it, but what does it say about the news in this place? There is no news that doesn’t please the owners of the news outlets? Kind of reminds me of the old Soviet saying, there is so Izvestia in Pravda, and no Pravda in Izvestia. Sad times.

  Comment by Anonymous — Tuesday January 1, 2008 @ 8:56pm PST  Reply to this post

• Everyone around me was watching it – and it was totally cool! That is what brought me to this website!

  Comment by Olivia — Tuesday January 1, 2008 @ 10:14pm PST  Reply to this post

• I watched a few minutes of the parade on KTLA. At one point someone held up an Impeach Bush sign. The camera cut away within a couple of seconds.

  It truly is getting harder and harder for the mainstream media to ignore the mainstream opinions of the American public.

  Comment by mheister — Tuesday January 1, 2008 @ 10:53pm PST  Reply to this post

• Webster -

  Who says politics and the Rose Parade don’t mix? Um, did you see LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa riding a float called the SS Los Angeles? Politics and parades have ALWAYS mixed. It’s when city officials put on their best face for the people of their city and in the case of the larger parades, TV audiences around the world.

  If elected officials are allowed to propagandize the Rose Parade, so are WGA supporters and citizens who wish to see the president and vice-president impeached.

  Comment by Mheister — Tuesday January 1, 2008 @ 10:55pm PST  Reply to this post

• if they are going to ‘cover’ ever piece of unsolicited and unpaid piece of advertising then I am now recommending that McDonalds and Coke dump their Super Bowl Ads in favor of skywriting and ads painted onto the guts of fat men who will then run on the field.

  You are reading WAAAAY too much into the ‘big media’ ignoring this.

  Comment by MTvA — Wednesday January 2, 2008 @ 12:18am PST  Reply to this post

• For what it’s worth, I don’t think the goal was to get the message on TV. Rather, with a crowd of college football fans and their families, this was an opportunity to spread the message to those on the ground. And from what I’ve heard from those who were at the parade, a lot of people saw it and thought it was a good way of raising awareness without interfering with the parade.

  Interestingly, the reason that the advertising spot became available at a massively discounted rate was that a movie promotion had just pulled out on short notice. Seems kind of appropriate to replace that with a pro-WGA promotion.

  Comment by JenskiJen — Wednesday January 2, 2008 @ 2:51am PST  Reply to this post

• Hey I look at it this way, they took the Firefly theme and made it come true. The song talks about everything getting taken away but the sky and so why not use it to get a message out. Like it was said on the site and here the reason was it would hit a chunk of people who are not LA or NYC based. Also how can you not notice planes flying in formation in the air, duh, airshows are popular cause they are unique. Heck they started the parade off with F14’s flying in formation. People are curious by nature when you pull off something via skywriting cause it is cool to watch, and the anticipation to see what was is being written is more entertaining than some of those floats. I know some people who went out there because of a local marching band in the parade. Once the band passed them by they got bored of the parade really quick, then they saw the the skywriting. It kept them entertained as they waited for their chance to leave, and catch up with their family and friends who had marched in the parade.

  Comment by A Firefly Fan — Wednesday January 2, 2008 @ 4:20am PST  Reply to this post

• It was a great effort by the fans and I highly applaud them for it. Nice to know the writers have such a strong show of support from the fanbase out there….

  As a fan myself from the heartland of Wisconsin, I only wish there was more that I could do…..I’d have been out there myself handing out leaflets if I could have….

  I think that says something….

  Comment by Pete Fanning — Wednesday January 2, 2008 @ 4:31am PST  Reply to this post

• I wouldn’t say that it was a waste of money and it was not a PR move. It was something that the fans did. There was comment on NBC that said “There was none of the protesting that was expected” but that was all I heard.

  Although I expected the Rose Bowl not to air it officially, I was quite disappointed that the news didn’t pick it up. After all, it was the fans at 4writers.com that paid for it…not the striking WGA members.

  Comment by samwright23 — Wednesday January 2, 2008 @ 7:40am PST  Reply to this post

• I have to say I was at the Rose Parade, a block down from the starting point, I was looking for the sky writers, and I had a hard time seeing them — the wind must have been blowing up high, because the letters disappeared quickly. I don’t think anybody around me noticed either, partly because the entire crowd’s focus was (obviously) on the ground, and also because the first bit of skywriting, done before the parade began, was an ad for KTLA.com. Having seen that once, people didn’t bother to search for more…

  I’ll tip my hat to the fans for a nice gesture — but I wish they’d found a better use for the money they’d raised.

  Comment by William Rabkin — Wednesday January 2, 2008 @ 8:13am PST  Reply to this post

• If history repeats itself, the DGA will do a house-pet deal with the AMPTP and the writers will be forced to struggle to overcome that precedent.
  The present “Looking Backward” structure of the film/tv industry respects writers even less than the old moguls did. At least in the really old days, writers could be hired on with a studio contract that guaranteed them a salary for a year or two or five, with raises based on performance. Today we have the equivalent of either soup-lines or rock-star insanity. The new-media percentages the writers are demanding are bupkes compared to the income that is and will be generated. Before the next writers’ strike, perhaps the WGA should put aside a truly substantial strike fund so writers might draw a minimum salary and stay out for oh, say, six months.

  Comment by Vivi — Wednesday January 2, 2008 @ 9:25am PST  Reply to this post

• My niece called me from the parade route to tell me she and all the people around her could see the skywriting. When she got home she said there was a lot of discussion in the stands when she explained who 4forWriters were (because I told her) and what the strike is really about.

  Comment by e — Wednesday January 2, 2008 @ 10:02am PST  Reply to this post

• The mainstream media blackout extends to the LA Times.

  http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/front/la-me-roseparade2jan02,1,5624983.story?coll=la-headlines-frontpage

  The Times doesn’t drop the ball anymore. They just rarely bother to even look for the ball.

  Comment by MHeister — Wednesday January 2, 2008 @ 10:45am PST  Reply to this post