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Angel Puppet to Networks: “BE FAIR! SHARE!”
Tuesday, December 18th, 2007 at 4:17 am by Jami
The Writer’s Guild of America held a rally and protest in Boston and reader William Schwartz was on hand to give us this report:
The “TV Party” was hosted by Fans4Writers began in the First Parish Church. Joss Whedon (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Firefly), Rob Kutner (Daily Show with Jon Stewart), and Jamie Paglia (Eureka) sat at the front of the room and spoke about the strike and what it was they were fighting for. Aside from what the WGA was asking for, the primary message was one of solidarity. Apparently the production houses and networks have been falsely pushing the idea that the Writers are fracturing.
A short Q&A revealed a few interesting things. To start, Boston, while among the first places for localized demonstration, is not going to be the last. Joss in particular was vocal in expressing his hopes for similar events throughout the country.
Furthermore, they have begun making plans if this strike goes long-term. Apparently a number of writers are beginning to seek independent venues for their product in hopes of establishing a means of production outside of the offending corporations. Combine this with letter writing to sponsors, fan demonstrations, and other activities, you start to see that this is becoming a major push for social change in the media industry.What really struck home was the number of fans present. At previous WGA gatherings, the majority of the people were members or from sympathetic unions. Boston’s rally was largely fan populated. Firefly Jain hats everywhere.
After the Q&A, everyone grabbed picket signs and followed a few very sympathetic Police Officers to the Harvard Lampoon Building, the starting point for many great TV comedy writers. We spent about an hour and a half in the snow, enjoying each others company while marching, cheering, and harmonica playing.
Once 3 PM rolled around, the organizers called it a day and practically everyone proceeded to Pandemonium Books for an autograph and discussion session with Joss, Jamie, and Rob, lasting well into the night.
The Cambridge Chronicle sent some cameras to cover the event as well:
I’m almost certain D.C. will want a piece of this action. I do sincerely hope that the networks will listen to all the fan support of WGA and that these rallies accomplish something. Time will tell if audiences will tolerate television without writers and if the networks will feel a pinch in their wallets. I think that if an agreement hasn’t been reached by the start of the new year, the writers should actively pursue other avenues to distribute their work and just take the money and the power out of the hands of the Networks. I’m almost certain that audiences will follow. We’re not so chained to our idiot boxes as they’d like to think. We’ve got us the internet!
Thanks for the report William! You can check out some photos he shot of the event over at his photobucket.
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