What’s it like to be on the front-lines of the Hollywood Writers’ strike? What did a day on the picket lines look like? How many people showed up for a day earmarked as a show of support?
What celebrities were out in force to give their support to the writers who give them the words that showcase their enormous talent so they can become rich and famous and artistically satisfied?
To find out the answers CLICK HERE where writer/screenwriter blogger skippy the bush kangaroo (who writes all in lower case but has a high class progressive blog that was once mentioned by Jon
Stewart) gives you the details. That includes pictures…and some embedded videos of celebrities.
Also, see our previous post on the strike HERE.
What’s at stake and what are the issues in this strike? Read the St. Petersburg Times’ Q&A on the issue.
Meanwhile, there’s a NEW IMPACT of the strike: it may cause the next Democratic debate to be scuttled:
First the writers silenced Jay Leno and David Letterman.
Now the writers may silence Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, John Edwards and company.
In the case of the late-night comics, it’s the Hollywood writers’ strike that has cast the television entertainment world into reruns.
In the case of the Democratic candidates for president, it’s the threat of a news-writers’ strike that could imperil the final party debate before the Iowa caucuses on Jan. 3.
The Democrats today pledged not to cross the picket line, if CBS News writers strike before the planned Dec. 10 Democratic debate in California, the last in a long-running series of debates before the first presidential nominating caucuses in January.
Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) issued a statement about the Los Angeles debate that CBS plans in conjunction with the Democratic National Committe: ““It is my hope that both sides will reach an agreement that results in a secure contract for the workers at CBS News, but let me be clear: I will honor the picket line if the workers at CBS News decide to strike,”\
Former Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina made the same pledge in a conference call with reporters. And spokesmen for Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois, Gov. Bill Richardson of New Mexico and Sen. Chris Dodd of Connecticut said they too will not participate in that debate.
So now the strike is having an impact not just on the better known, wealthy writers, and the larger number of modest-income middle-class writers — but on a network that plans to hold a debate and the candidates that in reality sorely need one.
The number of impacts can only increase if the strike drags on……….
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.