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Striking movie and TV?writers seem to have public opinion on their side, a new poll suggests.
STRUCK DUMB: WITH THE PEOPLE ON THEIR SIDE: Striking movie and TV writers seem to have public opinion on their side, according to a poll commissioned by Malibu’s Pepperdine University and reported in the Los Angeles Times business section yesterday. Almost a third of Americans polled – 63 per cent – said they supported the striking writers, while a meager 4 per cent said they were on the side of the studios and producers represented by the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers. Thirty-three per cent said they were unsure, though it remains unknown how many of them were Lost viewers.
“Forty-seven per cent thought writers deserved the largest share of residual payments, compared with 26 per cent for actors, 25 per cent for producers and 2 per cent for directors,” according to the Times. “You’d expect nothing less when the only real information the public is getting is from sound bites and the issues are as complex as these,” said Barbara Brogliatti, spokeswoman for the AMPTP.
“It is not uncommon for the public to be sympathetic toward the side striking in a labor dispute,” explained Prof. David Smith of Pepperdine. “However, it is somewhat surprising to see overwhelming support from Americans for the creative side of the industry.”
There’s nothing particularly surprising about the poll results – the strikers make for plausible underdogs, especially since their opponents are producers and TV executives whose public image – fostered avidly in movies and on TV over decades by writers, big surprise – hovers somewhere between slumlords and white slavers. It’s also worth pointing out that no essential service is being interrupted by the writers’ strike – unless you count the paycheques being missed by production employees and technicians who’ve been laid off.
The most fascinating thing about the strike will be its knock-on effect on the industry and viewers’ habits the longer it drags on; the 1988 strike is credited with the rise of reality TV, and while there’s no new programming genre waiting in the wings to take up the slack (except, of course, for reality TV), viewers will either have to find something new to watch once everything is in reruns, or else turn off the set altogether.
According to the Pepperdine study, 35 per cent said they’d be spending more time on the internet, while 42 per cent said they’d read more. Of course you will – right after you finish all those renovations you’ve been putting off, and get more involved in the kids’ hobbies. Some future study will doubtless try to confirm whether Amazon.com and libraries have been the beneficiaries of the strike, or whether televised cockfights will undergo a long-awaited resurgence.
