Either someone reads TV Barn or that was an incredibly obvious joke (OK, it was the latter). But it was the perfect sign to sport at today's Fox rally.
I've had a number of interesting talks today with people both on and off the front lines of the protest. Clearly there is some kind of media momentum that is swinging toward the writers that no amount of threats is going to stop. We have heard over and over this week that the writers are united, and it's true that unity hasn't been tested much. But even this early on, veteran writers are impressed by what they see.
"This is my fifth Writers' Guild strike," Mark Evanier told me on his way back from the huge protest at Fox earlier today. "This is the first time I've never heard from the Benedict Arnold faction," that is, the people who will seize on the slightest concession by the studios as the reason to end the strike. Then again, as Evanier admits, no such concessions have been made — yet.
But as everyone enjoys the afterglow of today's mega-protest, it's worth looking ahead to some potential dark clouds on the horizon.
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Specifically, what happens if all this public pressure brings the two sides back to the table? The producers don't have to offer the writers the farm. They just have to give them enough to create uncertainty about continuing the strike. Are the writers united about what separates an insulting offer to one that's merely inadequate — or one that's better than another four weeks without work?
That's where David Rips comes in. I was introduced to him through a local reader of mine. Rips is a director in the Media and Entertainment practice of Deloitte Consulting LLP. He swears he will make money regardless of how the strike is settled. Much has been made of the claim by Jeff Zucker of NBC Universal that, as Jon Stewart mockingly put it last week, "the Internet -- uhhh, it's too new!" Well, Rips says it IS too new. And he makes the case that even those Internet webcasts that Howard Gould pointed to in his impassioned speech to the WGA meeting — the webcasts with advertising dropped into them — not even they make money.
Consider Rips a voice of reason on the studios' side, and give him a listen. (Podcasts also play through the jukebox at the top of the second column on this page. I encourage you to subscribe to TV Barn podcasts.)
I think Rips' prescription is a non-starter: Who would negotiate incremental residual rates after the experience of the hated DVD formula? His diagnosis, however, has the ring of truth to it, and raises potentially troubling questions for the future of the strike.
Next week, I think, will be a crucial one, when the writers attempt to cash in on this well-deserved wave of support and good PR and try to figure out how not just to stand united, but to move forward united as well.
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