Current location:	my office
Current mood:	striking
Entry tags:	bib fortuna, hollywood, jabba de hut, tv, writers' strike

Some Notes about this Writers’ Strike
I am unable to follow what is actually happening in the Hollywood Writers’ Strike, if in fact that is actually addressed in any news source. Perhaps there is only, in fact, the same inane story angle everywhere, which appears to be the attempt to assuage the nightmares of vulnerable, frightened masses of TV zombies with the fact that shitty TV scripts are piled up infinitatata. Don’t Panic seems to be the main point of every article. There may —MAY— be a terrorist attack by pinko Hollywood writers but they can NEVER TAKE YOUR FREEDOM TO WATCH TV AWAY FROM YOU. THE GOOD STUDIO EXECS AND PRODUCER DEMIURGES ARE THE ONLY ONES WITH THAT POWER and they would NEVER, NEVER DO THAT BECAUSE THEY ARE NOT COMMIE JEWS.

I cannot take anything in Hollywood seriously, ever. I realize that this is a huge, cultural wasteland-shaped blind spot of mine. Certainly I know what Hollywood writers and even actors suffered in the past —remember when actors were differently-abled humans rather than limited humanoid protocol droids? Between the Hays Code and the HUAC and passing through twenty kinds of hell in the middle, you can sort of understand how Never-Never Land became a factory for the unimpeachable dreck it’s been churning out, with few exceptions, every season, for the last infinity years.

Obviously if there are two sides to this, I sympathize with the writers. But it's hard to care about such bad writing. They're probably good people, stuck in a hellish eternal boardroom of the soul, churning out Everybody Loves Raymond jokes and diagramming funnies in response to the increasingly passive tickle-me American audience. But other than a brief twinge of real sympathy for the writers of 30 Rock, who actually do a good show, I'm mostly just confused and overwhelmed by the unbelievable stupidity of how the Strike is being talked about, and what this appears to tell me about my culture.

For example:

1. The fact that the newswriters’ “sympathy” is inevitably with the multibillionaire bosses rather than with their colleagues in Hollywoodland. You’ve got to love the results of media consolidation on this one. Look at the logical possibilities here: either media consolidation has effectively proved that all major news outlets successfully present “neutrality” as sympathy with ginormous media bosses, or all journalists are now self-selecting milk monitors who enjoy trash talking their equals because they feel it makes them bigger to identify with The Man. LOOK AT THIS: “Some [execs] are kicking off the tension with soccer, like Sony Pictures Classics exec Dylan Leiner, who's a 10-year vet of the Europe vs. World United AFM game held last Saturday. His company gets through AFM by strategically targeting projects -- focusing on two this year -- instead of looking through a ton of product. "There's a sense of anxiety here because films aren't selling for what they have in the past or working the same way they have," he said.” (Hollywood Reporter)

2. On that note, the notion that the audience will be “left in the lurch” by the strike. Obviously, this is not only completely dishonest but just patently self-deceptive, this idea that rolling jabba-the-hut studio execs and producers are concerned about all of us.
Jabba to Bib Fortuna: I will eat each and every television audience member until I am as big as the whole universe, which will be inside me. It will be the Jabbaverse, and I will be its fractal king and lord.
Bib Fortuna: [whispering] But… Jabba, Sir, the writers are going on strike. The audience members will stop watching. Corporate sponsors will pay less for repeats and reality shows.
Jabba: [frowns] We don’t want audience be bored! We want audience be happy in Jabbaverse! Thaw new writer out of carbonite. Make slave girl write. I concerned about audience now. Must not leave audience in lurch.

And, within the absolutely ridiculous concern for the public/strike alert-level orange outlook:

3. The absolutely awesome emphasis on children. Because we all know how American children don’t have enough access to television, and that it’s crucial for their well-being that they watch more. “Upon being told that the strike's outcome would determine whether new televisions shows would be able to get on the air, one child looked up with a worried expression and said simply, "Oh." (Hollywood Reporter) I am so worried about how children will deal with this strike, and in fact I think that we should focus on their opinions about it because they are probably the best prepared for understanding how strikes work, what their purpose and history is in American politics, just to make sure that our news coverage remains on point.