Another post about the Screen writers strike.
As a member of a union, all strikes make me pause with a bit of wonder. I like learning how different labor disputes are settled within different styles of unions.
One of the things I have found fascinating about the screen writers strike is not the terms of contracts or grievances of labor.... but I am just amazed at the the different angles the news media takes on this issue, depending on who is doing the reporting.
I noticed the biggest difference when listening to NPR's Morning Edition. They had a calm and uniform approach to the reporting. They told both the major studios side and the strikers. They interviewed picketing workers (and a few Teamster's who joined the picket as a show of solidarity) and even gave a bit of anecdotal storytelling to the strike. They related how a truck driver who pulled up at the time they were recording the report refused to cross the line and told the people at the studio gates that if they wanted the items on the truck, they needed to unload it on the street. They seemed to honestly convey the thought that they were reporting a news story of the public interest.
Then on my local news. The strike was a bookend pimple on the ass of the worthless entertainment blurbs. Obviously not as important as celebrity scandal other than the fact that both the NBC and CBS local newscasters pretended to be sad when they reported that the Late Night shows on after the 10 o'clock News would be in reruns until the strike was over. Although Nashville is an entertainment town and television productions are filmed here, very little of the news centered on the impact of the strike on our community, which seemed like lazy reporting. (The CMA awards are in town this week so maybe they were a bit distracted?)
The Tennessean newspaper was asking for input from local screenwriters to discuss how the strike is affecting them. Since Viacom bought Spike/TNN and CMT and moved most of it's production facilities out of town or scattered them away from the Opryland complex . I don't know where or how any local picket lines would gather. Outside of the Commerce Street CMT building doesn't really work because that network has almost no scripted shows to speak of.
Fox news was a bit more hysterical about the whole ordeal. They wanted to constantly remind their viewers about the devastating effect this would have on Jack Bauer's supertortureadventures on '24', Fox's movie lineup for next year, and they threw in a few bones about Disney/ABC and Universal/NBC shows as an afterthought. They were not even trying to be subtle in the coverage. To them, the main story seems to be "Hollyweird writers are ruining you ability to sit on your fat ass and watch our FOX shows!"
At least CNN was subtler. They still had less balance in the reporting of the labor dispute at the center of the story and more of an emphasis on the "OMG" factor of what shows were halting production and which movies were not going to come out. They did at least mention studios and networks other than those owned by Time-Warner. Though as a geek person who knows CNN Atlanta's close proximity to the Williams Street facility, it could have been a nice view of the microcosm that is cable TV if they had gone over to the Cartoon Network offices and seen how this strike might hit the animation industry, since those screen writers are massively overlooked in the context of most other major film and broadcast media.
CNN's reporting of the strike still seems to lean on the sensationalism of shocking viewers with "how awful it will be that these mean and greedy writers will stop all your shows", which betrays their allegiance to the Time-Warner corporate masters.
So for all the banter and bollocks of NPR being some liberal lapdog. I'd still take their "fair and balanced" reporting over any other outlet in this matter. They are separated enough from the entertainment industry to do a even handed job of reporting a another labor dispute in America, instead of trying to spin it to satisfy the agenda of share holders and executive boards. It's good to know there is at least one outlet that still holds onto it's journalistic ethics and responsibility to the public.
(WHO WILL WRITE THE SNARKY BUMPS ON [adult swim]?)
One of the things I have found fascinating about the screen writers strike is not the terms of contracts or grievances of labor.... but I am just amazed at the the different angles the news media takes on this issue, depending on who is doing the reporting.
I noticed the biggest difference when listening to NPR's Morning Edition. They had a calm and uniform approach to the reporting. They told both the major studios side and the strikers. They interviewed picketing workers (and a few Teamster's who joined the picket as a show of solidarity) and even gave a bit of anecdotal storytelling to the strike. They related how a truck driver who pulled up at the time they were recording the report refused to cross the line and told the people at the studio gates that if they wanted the items on the truck, they needed to unload it on the street. They seemed to honestly convey the thought that they were reporting a news story of the public interest.
Then on my local news. The strike was a bookend pimple on the ass of the worthless entertainment blurbs. Obviously not as important as celebrity scandal other than the fact that both the NBC and CBS local newscasters pretended to be sad when they reported that the Late Night shows on after the 10 o'clock News would be in reruns until the strike was over. Although Nashville is an entertainment town and television productions are filmed here, very little of the news centered on the impact of the strike on our community, which seemed like lazy reporting. (The CMA awards are in town this week so maybe they were a bit distracted?)
The Tennessean newspaper was asking for input from local screenwriters to discuss how the strike is affecting them. Since Viacom bought Spike/TNN and CMT and moved most of it's production facilities out of town or scattered them away from the Opryland complex . I don't know where or how any local picket lines would gather. Outside of the Commerce Street CMT building doesn't really work because that network has almost no scripted shows to speak of.
Fox news was a bit more hysterical about the whole ordeal. They wanted to constantly remind their viewers about the devastating effect this would have on Jack Bauer's supertortureadventures on '24', Fox's movie lineup for next year, and they threw in a few bones about Disney/ABC and Universal/NBC shows as an afterthought. They were not even trying to be subtle in the coverage. To them, the main story seems to be "Hollyweird writers are ruining you ability to sit on your fat ass and watch our FOX shows!"
At least CNN was subtler. They still had less balance in the reporting of the labor dispute at the center of the story and more of an emphasis on the "OMG" factor of what shows were halting production and which movies were not going to come out. They did at least mention studios and networks other than those owned by Time-Warner. Though as a geek person who knows CNN Atlanta's close proximity to the Williams Street facility, it could have been a nice view of the microcosm that is cable TV if they had gone over to the Cartoon Network offices and seen how this strike might hit the animation industry, since those screen writers are massively overlooked in the context of most other major film and broadcast media.
CNN's reporting of the strike still seems to lean on the sensationalism of shocking viewers with "how awful it will be that these mean and greedy writers will stop all your shows", which betrays their allegiance to the Time-Warner corporate masters.
So for all the banter and bollocks of NPR being some liberal lapdog. I'd still take their "fair and balanced" reporting over any other outlet in this matter. They are separated enough from the entertainment industry to do a even handed job of reporting a another labor dispute in America, instead of trying to spin it to satisfy the agenda of share holders and executive boards. It's good to know there is at least one outlet that still holds onto it's journalistic ethics and responsibility to the public.
(WHO WILL WRITE THE SNARKY BUMPS ON [adult swim]?)