'Ellen' responds

In response to a sharply worded rebuke from the Writers Guild of America to daytime talk show host  Ellen Degeneres, representatives for the comedian released the following statement.

"It is unfair and incorrect to compare The Ellen DeGeneres Show to late night shows such as Leno, Letterman and Conan, all of which are late night network owned and controlled programming.  Ellen is a daytime talk show carried on a syndicated basis across individual television stations, no different than, and in direct competition with, Oprah, [Rachael] Ray, Phil, Live with Regis and [Kelly], the View, Martha, Tyra, Jerry, [Maury], and Montel, all of which are in first run daytime syndication and are continuing in production.

"Ellen has not done anything in violation of the Writer's Guild of America agreement, or the WGA's internal 'Strike Rules'. Telepictures Productions, through its distributor Warner Bros. Domestic Television Distribution, has contractual obligations to continue to deliver original programming to the 220 stations that carry the program.

"We have asked Ellen to come back to work to fulfill her contractual obligation as host of the show because without original programs the stations can move the show out of its time periods or ultimately hold the company in breach of contract. The company in turn expects Ellen not to breach her contract to host the show. We also wish to preserve the 135 jobs of the staff and the crew whose livelihoods depend on the show continuing. We regret the Writers Guild has chosen to strike and we wish for a quick resolution."

Comments

[Jeffrey Sweet]

In order to get health benefits, a WGA member has to make $30,000 for writing in one year. Half of the members of the WGA don't earn enough for health benefits. That means that half of the writers aren't making as little as $30,000 a year.

By the by, I'm one of them. I've won a WGA award for writing, I've been nominated for an Emmy, and wrote a show that won a Peabody Award. I have a list of awards and swell reviews that goes on for pages, and I still can't make my nut from writing.

So don't but this dumb idea that writers are all fat, privileged people sitting out the strike on yachts. This is a very hard business. You remember how much you hated writing two or three-paged papers for high school? We're doing what you hated to do so that you have something decent to occupy your time on TV, at the movies, or through streaming content on the Internet.

The forces against us are the big-time corporations. The same folks sending jobs overseas and using every trick in the book to avoid paying their fair share of taxes that go to support your services. Why side with these awful bullies?

[Lily Sparkletoon]

Ellen could do this instead interview WGA members about the strike to get their point of view and make their voices understood

[Gaius Julius Caesar]

Well as a lesbian Ellen is on her own and has been since day one. She knows that ultimately you are alone when you are marginalized by sexual orientation. She lost one show when she came out. Did the writer's guild fall on it's sword when that happened? She doesn't care about people who aren't making it right now. This is her time and she isn't going to risk screwing it up. Let the Writer's Guild stop her! Behind all the managers this is what I think she thinks. This and too bad about that little doggie that might have lost a chance for happiness? Oh it was about the dog I think. I think part of the comments about how writing stinks on Television is because of the diverse society the shows recently have tried to show through their writing. Writing comedy is harder without someone to make fun of. Ironic. Maybe bring back the Nazis?

[JOSEPH CAPRIO CITYLIFEPRODUCTIONS]

THE MOST CREATIVE PEOPLE IN THE WORLD ARE WRITERS AND PRODUCERS.IT IS TIME THEY CREATE AN ATMOSPHERE WHERE THESE DIFFERENCES CAN BE RESOLVED.IT IS OBVIOUS THAT ENEMYS ARE BEING CREATED FOR LIFE AND CAREERS RUINED. I MUST SAY I LIKED LENO BEFORE THIS STRIKE BUSINESS OCCURED NOW I ADMIRE HIM AND THE OTHERS LIKE HIM.

[Blake]

Wait a minute- Didn't the screenwriters suffer from blacklisting and now they're attacking Ellen for having a different take on a strike for more $$$?

Shame on the writers.

[JOSEPH CAPRIO CITYLIFEPRODUCTIONS]

WRITERS AND PRODUCERS ARE THE MOST CREATIVE PEOPLE ON THE PLANET .ITS TIME TO LET THE LAWYERS GO CHASE SOME AMBULANCES AND GET RID OF THE AGGITATORS AND SETTLE THIS THING AMICABLY BEFORE THINGS GET REAL UGLY AND PEOPLE WHO JUST WANT TO WORK ON BOTH SIDES ARE SCARRED PROFESSIONALLY FOR LIFE .

[RS in LA]

A writer here said half the WGA members don't make enough ($30,000) to qualify for insurance. Well, that's mystifying since the WGA's own records say their membership's "median" salary is about $95,000 a year. Methinks when you sit around for coffee with friends and talk politics, sex and money that they aren't being truthful about money. Thank goodness you can count on them being truthful about sex and politics.

[megschlegel]

I don't understand how this whole issue has been reduced to a debate about HOW MUCH WRITERS MAKE. This seems clear: some writers make a lot of money. Some writers don't. Just because the average or median wage of the WGA as a group may be higher than it is in other professions, does that mean the writers should just roll over and accept cuts? "Go ahead, Big Media, gouge my benefits and royalty payments. I make more than a grip, so I don't deserve to be treated fairly."
That is ridiculous. We are Americans and capitalists. EVERY group tries to do better for themselves. EVERY group gets angry when their bosses try to cut their pay and benefits. It is awful that the writers' strike affects so many other jobs. I know writers who are very conflicted and torn up about it. But they HAD to stand up to their corporate bosses. And sadly, in many cases, the show can't go on without them.
The show ALSO can't go on if there is nobody to load the cameras and run the sound and drive the trucks. And if any of those workers were faced with a contract negotiation that threatened THEIR benefits and livelihood, and there was no other choice, you can bet they'd be on strike in five minutes, even if that hurt other unions.
The WGA is protecting its least successful, as well as its most successful members. But the comments here make it sound as if, if someone makes more money than you, they are not entitled to stand up for themselves. The corporations are the enemy here, not the writers.

[RS in LA]

It's been reduced to how much they make almost from the beginning. I am for the writers to make as much as they can. Whether they strike or not is up to them and I hold nothing against that. I'm not on either side and I think most people in the country are the same. If it's the perceived greediness of the producers or the perceived high pay of writers... that's between them. My only concern is I hope it doesn't hurt my pocketbook. I can live with reruns, sports and game shows for years until one side caves or both sides compromise. What is upsetting us tv watchers is that a lot of writers in their interviews and the postings here want us to feel sorry for them. NO WAY! NO HOW! Most people in the USA would chop off their pinky toe to make HALF of what the median pay is for a writer. You don't feel sorry one bit for either side of this ugly strike. Not one bit. I pick up the paper and laugh every morning... and I'm not looking at the comics. If the producers win, good for them... if the writers win, good for them. If the strike ends and both sides compromise big time in a few days...good for all the couch potatoes. As for me... there's a dart competition on espn right after Get Smart on KDOC, so with my popcorn I'm set for the night.

[megschlegel]

But I think it is an error to see the writers and Big Media as essentially similar groups. Big Media is five giant corporations which exist only to make billions of dollars (NBC, for instance, is owned by GE. They make aircraft is carriers!)
The writers are people like you and me who had a dream, who went to Los Angeles and worked (and continue to work) their butts off to get to where they are now. They weren't born there. They worked. They don't deserve to be steamrolled by a faceless conglomerate.
You are right: no one should feel sorry for the writers. They CHOSE to be where they are. They are doing it because they want to. But it is also true that many members of their union are struggling and need the income and protection they are fighting for. It's the job of the union to take care of all their members, not just the lucky ones who have steady jobs and fat wallets.
Corporatization--the taking over of our industries by massive companies that don't care about us as people-- affects all of us: our health care, our energy policy, everything. I think it's a mistake not to care which side wins.

[Jay in Tucson]

For the record, with regard to my comment. I didn't intend to imply that they don't have a right to fight for more... simply don't expect me, or many other average Americans, to be (overly) sympathetic with their purported plight. There are for more noble causes for which to strike and to publically criticize someone, like Ellen, who chooses not to risk all she has to get them more money just makes people like me feel more jilted by whole affair.

Megschlegel IS correct. It shouldn't be about how much they make now vs. how much they stand to make by striking... unfortunately, it is. At the core, capitalism is about 'me'. It's about how much *I* can get, often at the detriment of others. It's what the corporations are looking out for. It's why they won't come off on more money (though they continue to scale their profits up nicely). Both sides want more money, regardless of who gets hurt in the process.

In an idealistic world, all mass corporations would share their profits with the employees that contribute.

Alas, we don't live in that world, and I don't really think the principles of this strike will get us, or rather them, there either.

I'd really like to agree with them. I'm torn up by feeling the way I do because I believe in fighting for what's 'right' (though that's often subjective). I just haven't heard a terrific argument that makes me want to jump on the bandwagon and do what I can to support them.

Personally, if they could sway us, their viewers, to take up their cause and boycott the advertisers who supply the money to the networks, they'd be far more successful -- at least I think so. Ne'er so fast do networks move than when their real source of money is endangered. I believe letting them, the media corps, to foot the bill for continued production while reducing the returns they see would be far more damaging to the business without damaging the lives of so many who stand nothing to gain or the economies in which they live.

As it is, they've too many options in this reality-loving world to give up more of their pie ... at least not any time soon.

[megschlegel]

You are right that the fight over Ellen is petty and doesn't help the writers at all. Personally I think they are right; she's a WGA member, if they're on strike she should not cross the line. (Yes, whether she's doing it selfishly or not, she is allowing her staff to keep their jobs. But you can also argue that she's hurting, or at least refusing to help, the less fortunate members of her own union, who really need the benefits they're fighting for. You can also argue that the stronger she helped make this strike, the sooner it would be over for everyone.)
But whatever; this is a side issue that should not have become such a flash point. The WGA isn't doing themselves any favors by wasting time attacking Ellen.
I just wanted to make the point that the WGA strike isn't just about the WGA. Believe it or not, if the WGA fails in its quest for a fair contract, it's bad for ALL the unions. If the WGA wins, it's good for everyone. I talked to the craft services guy on a popular show; he'll be out of a job in a few weeks and isn't happy about it. But he acknowledges that the writers had to strike. "If they break the WGA, they'll come for my union next."
One of the things the WGA is fighting for is the right to support other unions if/when THEY go on strike, so that writers will not have to cross other picket lines. Of course this fight is about money, but it also really is about the health of the unions...ALL the unions...in this industry, and whether or not Big Media will be able to break them and continue to devalue the individual worker...as corporations are doing (to teachers, auto workers, health care provides) all across America.

[megschlegel]

Also, just a note of clarification: the writers aren't exactly striking for MORE money. It can sound that way. But really they're just striking to try to stay at the income/benefit level they have now.
Writers (like novelists and musicians) get paid two different ways: a fee for providing their services, and a royalty payment when their intellectual property gets re-sold to a new market. Right now media is in the middle of a big shift: from television to internet. It seems certain that in a few years no one will be watching television the way they watch it now. Which means that gradually, writers will lose the television royalties that many of them depend on as part of their livelihood. And Big Media is proposing to replace those royalties with, basically, nothing. So it's not like the writers are trying to get richer here. They are just trying to stay at the same level by collecting the same royalties they get now, just applied to a different medium.
(Another side note: the really rich writers actually don't have as much to gain here. They are multimillionaires; their deals set them up for life. The royalty payments don't make a huge difference to them. The payments DO make a huge difference to middle-class writers...or to struggling writers who may go years between jobs.)

[Santiago]

As an aspiring foreign screenwriter who happens to be in L.A. since the strike started I'd like to say a couple of things.

The first one, there hasn't been a negotiation. There's been a war. A dirty media war.
From a writer's standpoint, it's a war for fair compensation. That means, money plus a moral component.
For the MTPTP, it's a war for money. They don't stand to lose anything. They're just trying to make more.

I don't intend to demonize the industry execs or producers here, but I don’t intend to sanctify them, either. If, as I read a former VIACOM exec walks out with a 60 mn severance package deal -more than all that DVD residuals pay in one year in the States- something is really wrong. What I mean is: in 1988, the MTPTP convinced the guild to accept the absolute minimum for the potential residuals of DVDs under the same argument they use today: the risk they take with new technologies. Oh, and because they wanted to prevent hurting a new technology.

The way I see it, this is not a fair game, from beginning to end.
If you analyze this from the standpoint of how much screenwriters make, or compare it to a national average, you're making a big mistake.

First, you don't just wake up and decide to be a screenwriter. It takes a lot of talent and reading, it takes passion and courage. And, in most cases, years. I’ve studied film in 3 countries and seen that thousands will and do give it a try but only a handful has what it takes.

When you hear how hard it is making it into the film industry, believe it. They mean it. And breaking in doesn't guarantee success. It's just the beginning.
Getting an agent, one of the most difficult things to achieve here, is just getting an agent. You don’t get rich. You just get a shot. Someone will shop your stuff around. Might work or not for many reasons. No guarantees. If it works, you might get an assignment, or have a script optioned. Only then would you make money. And from what I’ve read and the people I’ve met, that normally comes –if ever- after years of writing on spec, having two or more jobs, seeing your debt grow and your dream fade away.

Yes, there is a lot of money involved for those who make it. But how does the MTPTP expect writers to be in peace knowing that out of stories that don’t exist - that they, and only they create- they get 2 cents for a 10- dollar DVD while the dvd manufacturer makes 50 cents?
To me, because I know the painstaking process of writing in first person and some of my greatest friends are writers, too, no matter what we get paid, we deserve every single cent.

And make no mistake, only a handful of writers make it out of thousands. The last screenwriting Expo, with more than 4 thousand writers shaking as they prepared a 5 minute pitch to companies is an example. I don’t know of anyone who got a deal during the show. Like me, they came from other countries or from all 4 corners of the US. They have a dream. They’ve worked their asses of. Five minutes that may crown years of solitary work. Five minutes to change your life.

Many won’t ever try again, and I don’t blame them. It can be really discouraging. For those who survive the heartbreaking reality that it’s not only damn hard but virtually impossible to make it, what’s left is that little voice that whispers “just keep trying.” And for some reason, many of us follow that voice.

Regarding the WGA, you don’t become a member by grace. And when you get a membership you don’t get rich. You get a set of pre-negotiated conditions for deals you make.

In fact, I’ve bumped into some eye-opening statistics. Out of the 12,000 members of the two writer’s guilds in the States, less than one third get a job each year. Less than 4 ,000.

As a number, this is like saying that out of all of the guild’s members (8 thousand in WGAw., 4 thousand in WGWe) only the majority of the writer’s guild east make a living out of writing.

This is why, among other reasons, writers should and must get paid fair residuals for their work: because they won’t always be employed and not even the highest paid (unless you produce and/or direct as well) walks out with a 60 million severance package that allows them to comfortably sit back and enjoy a frankly shameful show of contempt for a key ally in a collaborative business.

[RS in LA]

Just 2 observations on prior posts. It was said that "one of the things the WGA is fighting for is the right to support other unions if/when THEY go on strike, so that writers will not have to cross other picket lines." I find that absurd and extrememly dangerous to the economy if every union also had that written into their contracts. I have said I don't care who wins this thing as long as it doesn't cost me more money... well that would be a deal breaker for me. Why anyone who offers you a job would agree to something that loony is beyond me. And then the statement "writers should and must get paid fair residuals for their work: because they won’t always be employed"... well I have found myself unemployed with no residuals. Why should they be entitled to it? I have worked at companies where my technical drawings and computer setups (that I designed) are still being used while I am employed elsewhere. I get no residuals for those,. They belong to the company and I have no problem with that. This "entitled" stuff is a bunch of manure. It is simply human nature to want more and both sides want more of the pie. The only thing the writers are entitled to, is whatever they can get. That's it. As far as the objectivity of a "Foreign screenwriter" I'm not sure they would have the proper perspective on capitalism. Again, I want this strike to end, and I don't care who wins or who compromises. But I will not feel sorry for either side.... only the tv watching public.

[Curtis Singer]

If writers weren't necessary, then all free-form talk political shows would be incredibly rewarding instead of mired in the kinds of cheap-fix rants one finds on boards like this.

Television boardrooms are pigpens, and television execs are insulting, but career writers are wizards of Oz. When it comes to excess, they're are the last people you should be complaining about. Execs take credit for others' work and empty their bank accounts buying coke and bankrolling unnecessary $1500 dinners, while writers are brainstorming and pushing out show after show every week. You think it's easy to maintain that level of output? Then try it -- not for a few days, but for decades.

Besides, most of you need to understand the history and outcome of strikes. Without them, few of you would have health benefits, 401ks, pensions or humane working conditions. Because we've had fewer and fewer unions since the 80s, people are now having their pensions taken away, and bankruptcy technicalities have become de rigeur whenever five-years'-loyalty slash-and-burn CEOs decide they're paying too much to support their 30-year full-time employees.

[Jeremy]

"As far as the objectivity of a 'Foreign screenwriter' I'm not sure they would have the proper perspective on capitalism."

That is one of the most breathtakingly wrongheaded statements I've ever read. First, the U.S. is a country composed of "foreigners" -- none but Native Americans can claim otherwise -- therefore "foreigners" are the perfect people to understand it. Second, argument by authority will get the perpetrator laughed off of any debate team: the focus should be on the argument, not arbitrary attributes of the speaker ("as a person with fur on his lapel, you seem ill-equipped to discuss toxic chemicals in cleaning products"). Third, the fact that the writer is disqualifying another writer for having been born in another country says volumes about what "the proper perspective" might be. Fourth, and most importantly, dismissing several paragraphs of specific and varied insights as irrelevant for an utterly irrelevant reason suggests the writer lacks the proper perspective for reading comprehension.

[Jeff Sweet]

To the person who posted: "A writer here said half the WGA members don't make enough ($30,000) to qualify for insurance. Well, that's mystifying since the WGA's own records say their membership's "median" salary is about $95,000 a year."

Try looking up the meaning of the word "median." There is no contradiction here.

To repeat someone else's comment. If you were unemployed and you and Bill Gates were the only two people in a bar, the median income would be many millions of dollars. That still wouldn't make you any richer.

I repeat: half the members of the WGA don't earn the $30,000 necessary to get health insurance, and some of those people are very strong writers indeed.