I like how he mentioned the crew in this...

Also:

'Nor can we accept the companies' refusal even to discuss the issue of extending guild jurisdiction to cover writers who work in the television industry's must successful new genre, reality programming.'

And how can they demand to be paid a royalty for free streaming online videos that the studio doesn't yet make a profit on? If and when it is profitable, that is a reasonable demand, but right now, they could potentially shut that aspect of the business down completely.

The claim that they do not make a profit is bullshit (ads, product placement), and they are developing an income stream that is gonna pay off huge (see vhs, dvd).

they could potentially shut that aspect of the business down completely.
LOL

The online fox.com stream of House doesn't make a profit. I promise.

If they need to pay a chunk of the barely-there revenue to the writers, then it puts them further into the hole, discouraging their efforts to offer an online stream. Besides, it IS a promotional tool, so the WGA should concentrate on getting their money from DVD and iTunes downloads.

hitchcock called actors 'cattle,' which really sums up his low opinion of them. in his day, the writing, the story, the directing: that was the draw.

essentially i think the writers get little credit for most of the work.

you're damn right, they don't get credit, but the average salary of a regular TV writer (ie.. the writers on your favorite shows, and those who benefit the most from all of this, because an unemployed writer earns nothing) is around $200,000.

So, yeah, some hack actors get paid millions for the same or less work, but that's the thing -- nobody is going to watch a sitcom because it was written by Steven J. Finnegan... but they WILL watch it because it stars that dude from Friends. At least that is the theory.

It works the same with pro sports. The GM gets paid a fraction of what ARod or Roger Clemens earn, but has as much, if not more impact on the team's success. Billy Bean, however, doesn't put asses in seats on the power of his name. Barry Bonds does.