Clock Ticks on Writers’ Strike
Ever since the writers’ strike began, this website has been passionate about supporting them, and consistent about excoriating TV celebs like Jay Leno, Jon Stewart, and Ellen DeGeneres who, whatever their rationalizations, have not. Even though the mass audience has displayed its relative apathy towards the strike by watching bad-guy shows like Leno more than good-guy shows like Letterman, it is still in the writers’ interest to keep an eye on the public-relations part of the struggle. And one of the best ways to lose that part of the fight is not to grant a waiver to the Oscars so that the February 24 ceremony can go ahead. (Or not to settle the strike by then.) While a watered-down Academy Awards would not force fans to storm producers’ offices the way, say, a diluted Super Bowl would, there are nonetheless many people who would see the second-best show as a mark against the writers. And remember this, scribes: while the Super Bowl may be the most-watched program of the year nationally, the most-watched American program of the year worldwide is by far the Oscars — more than a billion people tune in. You’ve got a planetary public-relations situation to consider. Meanwhile, here’s the latest, admittedly alarmist report from Academy president Sid Ganis about how time is starting to run out for a traditional Oscars broadcast.
