My name is Tony Figueroa and I am a TV blogger. I love writing about the television medium. Most of what I love about television comes from WGA writers and SAG actors. Until now, writing about television was considered fluff. TV bloggers have been using our talents and resources to get the word out that the Writers Guild of America (WGA) strike is important.
The big issues are DVD and new media residuals. These will be the same issues that are going to be brought up when the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) and the Directors Guild of America (DGA) contracts are up later next year.
Lets face it, nothing happens in Hollywood until a writer types the words FADE IN. Bloggers, especially the ones living in New York and Los Angeles, are presenting the facts about the strike and communicating personal stories about the creative people (especially the non-celebrities) who are currently out of work. Without the bloggers (along with help from United Hollywood, who has provided artwork that is posted on TV blogs) it would be much more difficult to get the message out. Bloggers have also walked the Virtual Picket Line on MySpace.
The mainstream media and the entertainment industry trades are not giving the strike the coverage it deserves. This proves now more than ever that the people who use the term "liberal media" are wrong. If that were really true then most of the "liberal media" outlets would give the strike a lot more than thirty seconds of airtime (half of that airtime is dedicated to star sightings on the picket line or traffic reports).
The truth of the matter is that the media is not liberal but corporate owned. The same conglomerates that make up the Alliance of Motion Pictures and Television Producers (AMPTP) own the media. On November 13, TV bloggers, with the help of United Hollywood, went on strike for the day in solidarity with the WGA. That event got noticed by the mainstream media and the entertainment industry trades. Events like the one on November 16 where presidential hopeful John Edwards joined a writers' rally at NBC in Burbank would not be seen if the WGA’s YouTube videos were not posted on TV blogs.
To quote writer Stan Lee's creation Spider-Man, "With great power comes great responsibility." In this struggle bloggers have become a beacon of truth helping people whose work we have admired all these years. Never again will I refer to what we do as fluff.
In solidarity,
Tony Figueroa
Article comments
1 - Tan The Man
It's interesting that you note the DGA and SAG contracts as well. You could theorize that the networks/studios are colluding to decide together how to handle residuals. Because whatever happens here is sure to affect those future negotiations...
2 - Tony Figueroa
We are all on the same page