Obstinance

Hi. I'm Or. And I'm a television junky.
I love viewing grown men bash into each other in pursuit of a ball. I'm also infatuated by any series encompassing twenty five hours of guns, grim complexions, bikinis, and Whataburger ads. And I stand up and applaud every time Rupert Murdoch (Who owns Fox, for those of you who haven't managed to hear him flaunt it) reiterates to us that Homer Simpson is overweight.
Tie in that preface and the title to this post, and our valued troops would have to be buried in a foxhole somewhere in Vietnam for an extended period of time not to figure out what this will concern.
But I'll cut you some slack, you deprived men and very occasionally women running short of supplies and scampering amok within a forest of Agent Orange and snakes. This will concern the Writer's Strike.
Quick recap.
Upon the release of that which we call DVDs, TV networks and movie production companies approached writers with a plea. They wanted to lower the cut that the writers would receive from every sale, in order to increase the chances that this new form of media would succeed. The writers agreed to this under an unspoken assumption that this was a temporary change, and that if the market were solidified their share of the pie would once again rise in proportion. This has not been the case, however. Typically, the writers will earn approximately a nickel and a penny for their parts in the production of a $20 dvd.
Another issue is the introduction of new media; namely, internet programming. The past several years have seen a massive growth in the number of shows playing their episodes on the network site shortly after the airdate. The writers receive an absolute, unspinnable, unbelievable ZERO percent of the profits from this increasingly significant source of income.
To summarize, the writers are getting the half-digested crusts of the DVD sale pie, while failing to even sniff the scent of freshly baked apple delight emanating from 'New Media'.
The writers, obviously decided that something had to be done. For the last several months, all members of the Writers' Guild of America have refused to provide scripts for the people who provide their Cheese Balls and Red Bull. A lot of them have been laid off after not showing up for prolonged periods of time.
The last time a strike like this occured was 1988. Writing was locked down for 22 weeks, and it cost the industry 500 million dollars.
If this strike continues for a period of time remotely reminiscent to that one, we would be staring a far larger loss in the seamy and unpleasant underbelly.
Why is this discussion worthy of time that could be spent watching the Green Bay Packers and their incredibly irritating fans humiliated on national television? Because it has gone on too damn long.
Let's be reasonable, people. The Writers want to be reimbursed like everyone concedes they should be. Everyone besides the networks. The networks just want to come out of the fall and winter without losing billions. The movie producers are sighing in relief about the next Superman mess laying in a state of perpetual stasis. But let's disregard them.
There's no logical reason that this thing should have extended as far as it has. Networks, you're being petty. Writers, it would help your case to write a lot of this stuff in advance. Don't present it to your producers; in fact, keep the stuff under lock and key. Spoilers suck. But letting the CEOs know that upon reaching a settlement the return of programming could be expedited might allow you to gain negotiating headway. Movie producers, you... just keep busy assuring that nothing gets by involving the aforementioned Caped Crusader, nor the words 'American' and "pie' used in conjunction without 'Apple' in the middle.
Get this done, people. For everyone's benefit.
And now I will do my part to thank you for reading my empassioned , humor-deprived, lecture-esque piece. Presenting the genius of jibjab.com.