Get Up, Stand Up! Or, How the Writers' Strike May be More Than an Annoyance

The writers' strike is very important. If it does not end there will be consequences - perhaps far reaching.

If I understand it correctly, the writers' strike portends an end to new television programming - a stop to our endless feed of narrative pablum.

The hum of television won't be shut off, but its key will change. Without writers entertaining us, networks will have nothing to show except reruns and news.

I repeat: without the writers to entertain us, the networks will have nothing to air except news.

I anticipate that among people who habitually watch television there will be primarily two responses to the change in television programming. One, a reduction in hours spent watching television, and two, an increased exposure to news. Both of these scenarios bode well for our national well-being. How's that? We will become collectively better-informed, for starters, and and we will be gifted with the free time to - dare I be so bold? - engage more deeply with our families and our communities.

We have the opportunity to be a nation of well-informed citizens, with free time. Think of what it means to have both knowledge and freedom.

What are we going to do with this opportunity?


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Bless the writers and give them our thanks. They are our jester, and serve us well. :gassho:

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EDIT

Okay. First three reponses to this post were dismissive for different reasons but each equally hopeless.

I give you this reply.

If the television won't inform the people, then we are obliged to inform them ourselves. Television viewing will decrease, internet use will jump, social networking of all kinds will increase. It will be the time to stop talking about hopelessness here with each other and high time to start talking about the truth with our friends and neighbors! In our homes! In our work! In public! And with smiles on our faces! It's time to stop being ashamed of knowing what the truth is and trying to be - what, polite? courteous? - to our coworkers and our families. It's time to talk loudly and in public about our discontent. It's our duty as Americans, we have the moral high ground, and we have no choice but to move forward and take the reins.

in the first place.

They are reporting what they want people to hear-NOT the truth & certainly not that the US is turning into fascist nation at breakneck speed with * at the helm.

:puke:

Scribes scribbling ideas for the empire doesn't seem to sound too good for the common person at any rate. Getting people bumped out of their comfort zone often has dire consequences for the status quo during a difficult time.
I hope the strike goes on many moons :-)

I am heartened by knowing Jon Stewart is continuing to pay his staff. I don't know if other performers are following his lead, but I hope there's a network of support for these folks who are striking. It will make it easier to hold fast.

"You don't understand it correctly."

Only hindsight will call it "correctly".

"If I understand it correctly" was the premise of the OP.

Nice of you to notice my habits, now get me a gin and tonic and STFU.

Another habit of mine.

they did not have the Kucinich event, leadhing news, on the news.

The news have been cancelled

It's OJ time now :D

Of course...

So now that I need to catch up with all this pop culture, what happened to Sanjaya?

;-)

:shrug:








You are right that it will change people's habits, but that will take many forms other than more news (what passes for new anyway)

Some will read


Some will play video or surf the net


Puppet shows


Late summer birthrate rises!


Looking at from the producers POV, more cheap programming -reality shows - and perhaps trying to jazz up "news" - could be good time to have impeachment hearings, with lightning rounds and green goo falling from ceiling. Maybe waterboarding demonstrations...

And one far more horrible to contemplate than scripted entertainment: "reality shows".

I'm just getting harder and harder to shock, I guess. :)

See you on the picket line.

is being hopelessly naive.

You might as well assume the same thing will happen as the result of a baseball strike, or a football strike.

Not necessarily. There are way too many other ways for people to distract themselves nowadays. You might as well assume that keeping kids locked in their bedrooms after school until suppertime will force them to do their homework. If they have a TV, computer, phone, DVD player, etc., in there too? Fat chance.

How else did you get here? Those who solely rely on the corporate media for news are less and less these days. Either they're finding blogs, publications and other information sources or they're tuned out altogether. TV has become a brain numbing experience for most...an escape from reality, they don't want to deal with serious issues. Their idea of news is what they hear from their friends or see on Inside Edition and the rest is just noise.

I stand solidly behind the writers as there needs to be a line drawn in the onslaught on the creative by the beancounters. A writer is lucky to make enough to pay the bills, while his boss sitting on the 52nd floor buys yet another jet...thousands of jobs have been lost in the communications industries in recent years as the bottom line supercedes not just the quality of the product, but the lives of the people who have spent their lives in that field.

I would hope other unions would join in on the strike and really shut the networks down...get this thing settled sooner than later. Sadly, solidarity seems to be the name on a Polish T-shirt.

Even current new series are rerun 2 or 3 times over the season so I doubt viewing habits will change much. If anything people will just watch a rerun of something they haven't seen before.