Writers Strike Officially Over 499
CNN is reporting that the 100-day Hollywood writers walkout is now officially over. The new contract managed to snag two of the three major points the Writers Guild was looking for. The writers will now have "jurisdiction" for content created especially for new media (Internet, cell phones, etc) and will get paid for the reuse of content on new media when the studios get paid. "Leslie Moonves, chief executive officer of CBS Corp., told The Associated Press, 'At the end of the day, everybody won. It was a fair deal and one that the companies can live with, and it recognizes the large contribution that writers have made to the industry. [...] It's unclear how soon new episodes of scripted programs will start appearing, because production won't begin until scripts are completed, the AP reported. It will take at least four weeks for producers to get the first post-strike episodes of comedies back on the air; dramas will take six to eight weeks, the AP said.'"
Crisis Averted! (Score:5, Insightful)
writers read... (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm still not going to rush back to my television set over this.
TV? (Score:5, Insightful)
Im sorry, but its too late.
I took the plunge and got rid of 'pay-tv' once and for all right before this strike, and its amazing how little I actually miss it. And amazing how I was spending over $70/month for just regular ad-laced channels. Yes, paying to watch advertisements is not how I want to spend my money anymore. That INCLUDES the 'ads' that get thrown right into the shows, soap opera style(thats how they got their name after all).
The internet is now my primary tool of information sourcing and entertainment. The TV industry missed the boat, the same way the music industry did. The only thing that made it take as long as it did was the bandwidth difference between audio and video.
The TV is dead, long live TV!
the battle is over (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Crisis Averted! (Score:5, Insightful)
It sent a goddamned message to the public. The fact that this was such a big deal for so many people was absurd; less of life needs to be focused around what happens on TV. My only regret is that it's over in time for the Academy Awards. I think not having that ceremony would've sent a strong message to people about silly and over-hyped this whole culture is.
Maybe too late. Already weened. (Score:5, Insightful)
Unrelated to the writers strike, I got rid of my television and cable. I use the internet for news and watch movies with a digital projector. After a couple of months, I not only didn't miss it, but realized a big quality of life increase. More time with the kids, actually eating at the dinner table, etc.
I wonder how many people turned to other entertainment venues due to the strike. If there is NOTHING good on, I am sure some people cut back on their tv watching. Now that viewers have so many options (ie netflix, internet downloads, itunes tv, youtube, dvd kiosks, etc) this could not have come at a worse time. I am curious if this writers strike was the tipping point for a lot of people to ween themselves from their tvs. Not from shows all together, but the old standard of scheduling your life around when your show comes on and sitting through commercials.
Re:the battle is over (Score:5, Insightful)
The audiences. The studios will try to gouge us to recoup any concessions they made, and the pipeline for new stuff has run dry.
We'll have a drought of work over the next little while. Eventually, they'll go back to writing the same old tired sitcoms. The content won't magically get any better, in fact, the studio system will fall back more on formulas to try to get greater return on investment.
On the plus side, the studios will have resurrected the Oscars before their entire awards season is a bust.
Cheers
Re:Crisis Averted! (Score:5, Insightful)
This should give organized labor across the country a little bit of confidence.
So it represents something big even if it is just the television and film writers.
Re:Crisis Averted! (Score:1, Insightful)
No doubt. And, for the record, I didn't even notice the strike. I don't have a TV subscription or capture the "free" stations out the air. The 45%-48% commercial air-time pushed me over the edge and I said screw that.
Three years of not paying a cable subscription has bought me a HD TV for watching movies.
Nothing will change (Score:4, Insightful)
Eureka! The ultimate nerd show. (Score:2, Insightful)
If only.... (Score:5, Insightful)
Welcome back writers. Congrats on your win. We need you, more than ever.
Re:Maybe too late. Already weened. (Score:5, Insightful)
Television is awful, and it continually spirals farther downward. And honestly, I never saw much of a difference between having writers and not having writers around.
Re:Crisis Averted! (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Crisis Averted! (Score:4, Insightful)
The Fallout (Score:5, Insightful)
It may be a win for some people, but for others they are now out of a job. I don't have a pony in this race, but the strength of the writer's guild is in serious question. One Presidential candidate after another crossed the picket line in favor of publicity. They did not protect the jobs of those who they sought to protect. Actor/Writers crossed the picket line for fear of losing their jobs. And most importantly - many high value shows seemed to be airing new episodes in the middle of the strike.
I'm all for TV coming back, but make no mistake - this strike did not end well for the union. It seems that every labor union in the last several years that has gone on strike (save the port workers who affect the global economy when on strike) has yielded either poor results (eventual acceptance of offers barely different than what was available pre-strike) and in a loss of jobs for unionized workers.
I hate to turn this into a political thing, but the strength of unionized labor vs. corporate dollars has shifted dramatically in favor of corporate dollars.
Re:YAY! (Score:5, Insightful)
I don't. I hate it because it ditches the interesting parts of Mythbusters (quirky, real people; lots of tinkering and failure, a ridiculously wide variety of subjects and techniques) and keeps the boring parts (unnecessary time dilation to pad out the 44 minute format; forced expositional banter).
What really bugs me about the show is that they appear to be actually looking for alternative solutions to big problems with the aim of saving more lives/making it cheaper and easier to save more lives, but you never get a sense of that beyond the voiceover intro. Whether they succeed or not, no mention is made of the current methods they're trying to supplant or whether any of the potential insight they've gained will be used/passed on to relevant people who might then use it to save lives.
Also, the presentation of the show is still very rough around the edges. In Mythbusters, they'll happily divulge details step-by-step. In Smash Lab, there's a lot of "and thens" that can be quite jarring.
Re:Crisis Averted! (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Maybe too late. Already weened. (Score:5, Insightful)
What is my secret?
I have hobbies. Too many of them. TV shows are each a hobby and I am drawn to the interesting ones like a moth to a flame. But the boring ones interest me not at all, and channel flipping less so. I've always got something else I've rather do.
The problem is not that 'television is awful', the problem is that you have nothing else you'd rather be doing. Games, playing guitar, making model planes... Anything is better for you than mindlessly channel-flipping.
I seem like I'm preaching, but I'm not. It's simply the answer to your problem.
Re:Just Wait Till You Have Kids! (Score:5, Insightful)
Amazing how many people share that same assumption. You may want to spend some time and take a hard look at the lifestyle you are providing to your children.
Maybe you missed what I said in stating the importance of the INTERNET over the importance of TV in providing the same services. Perhaps you should be more concerned that the rest of the kids in your childs age group are comfortably using the internet as a replacement for TV, while your children are starting blankly at a screen.
Im sorry to hear about the parenting your children received, but that was your choice.
Re:Crisis Averted! (Score:5, Insightful)
Oh God, I hope not. While I'll admit in this case, it was a good thing....in general, I think unions are killing us in the US while trying to compete with business on a global scale.
Look at the recent postings of losses by GM. The outrageous fees they have to pay for retirements and other union perks, is killing them. They cannot sell a car at a decent price with a decent profit any longer....and they're more shoddily made, due to unions having people in there that cannot be fired without an act of God. It is almost like a govt. job.
Seriously....while I know the unions at their start helped make things right that were wrong, they have proved to go far beyond their useful place in labor relations, and have now been strangling US businesses. I'm sorry, but, a manual laborer should not expect $30/hour, and lifetime benefits...it isn't a special job, anyone could do it without formal education, but, due to job lock-ins, there isn't competition for that job.
Re:First post (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Crisis Averted! (Score:5, Insightful)
That isn't to say we should worship the new, but to denigrate it as you have done isn't useful, in my opinion.
Re:I don't care that you don't care (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:Crisis Averted! (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:First post (Score:5, Insightful)
The scenario was a guy robs a gas station. He holds a gun over his head and fires up into the sky. There is no video of it, just stories from the witnesses. The math guy rambles off a bunch of math terms, says algorithm a lot, then draws on a map, marking off a couple of places that the bullet was most likely to land.
The explanation of what he was doing was just random words strung together that didn't make any sense. "A guy fired a bullet into the sky" is no where near enough info to find a bullet.
After that, he went off into another "derivative algorithm sine cosine algorithm mean median algorithm integral algorithm" rant, so I changed the channel and never looked back.
Re:Crisis Averted! (Score:5, Insightful)
It's only when you can treat your serfs as the disposable Kleenex they are that the cost savings of the manufacturing offsets the increased costs of logistics.
Re:Crisis Averted! (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Crisis Averted! (Score:5, Insightful)
Why does someone in a high-skill job? They are both people, after all... Before you say "well, the market set the prices at..." let me remind you that most "high-skilled jobs" do not have market forces set their compensation. In fact, the union benefits are determined by a free-market, whereas the medical, legal and political fields are not. Executive compensation has other aspects that imply the executive's labor is not the sole reason for the high salary.
Why should "full benefits" (assuming that, since you remove pensions, all that is left is health/dental benefits) be dependendent on having a job at all? Seems like a human right.
Re:For true satisfaction, reality is better. (Score:3, Insightful)
CSI and a lot of other tech/police shows do break a lot of rules to make it "work", I usually try to avoid shows like that because it frustrates the hell out of me. However there are many shows that are fictional and still follow the rules. Monk for instance doesn't use any fake tech but rather interesting fictional situations. Then there are shows like Star Trek that use fictional technology but clearly define the laws and limitations of their world.
Unless I'm watching something like the History Channel/Mythbusters/Dirty Jobs/How it's Made/etc I find most "reality" based programing to be far more of an insult to my intelligence than anything CSI and the like could throw at me...
Re:Crisis Averted! (Score:5, Insightful)
What is with the superiority complex of Slashdotters? Who are you to say that labor jobs are low skill? Can you assemble an automobile? Can you construct a high rise, or even something "easy" like a house? Can you repair mass transit vehicles, weld steel dangling a few hundred feet in the air, or ensure that a jet engine will operate safely?
Just because you can operate a computer doesn't mean you're any better than "low-skilled" people.
Re:For true satisfaction, reality is better. (Score:3, Insightful)
Riiight. At least until the plot requires otherwise.
Re:First post (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Crisis Averted! (Score:5, Insightful)
If you don't pay people a wage that will allow them to live with some measure of decency, you get unrest. Unrest is a bad thing. (Strikes are just about the most positive way unrest manifests.)
Furthermore, "deserve" is an interesting word. What does anyone "deserve?" The only reason most of us in the United States (and Europe, etc.) can have the standard of living that we do is because we had the incredibly good luck to discover that you can use "rock oil" for a lot of things. Weirdly enough, that rock oil mostly occurs underneath populations that maybe aren't so fortunate.
Think about it like this: you might not think garbage men and other low-skill workers "deserve" a living wage or a pension if you are an Objectivist or a person of like persuasion, but you also deserve nothing. You don't deserve to not starve to death. "Deserts" are a human conceit. It's a silly argument to say that "you could have been born in Sudan" or something similar, because you couldn't have (you wouldn't be yourself), but note that the majority of people are born in vastly less comfortable positions than people in the West.
Re:TV? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:YAY! (Score:1, Insightful)
Not to mention the fact that the end of the first season made no sense whatsoever. Peter was going to explode, and Claire could have shot him, but didn't want to, despite the fact that he wouldn't have been killed. Then his brother flew him off, seemingly committing suicide to save everybody, despite the fact that Peter could fly himself.
The Heroes writers are apparently oblivious to one of the most fundamental rules of fiction: the audience can suspend their disbelief to believe in supernatural powers, but only if the story is internally consistent. When the writers forget what their own characters can do, the suspension of disbelief smacks the audience in the face and the story becomes a farce.