While the so-called "left-wing" blogs remind me the ongoing strike exists, I am not here at their exhortation. Nor am here to copy their form letter or follow their bullet points. I'm here to remind you of one simple, incontrovertible fact:
You're wrong.
If it were possible for me to force your browser to fill your screen with the text, "You're Wrong!" flashing red, I would do so. Because apparently you've managed to ignore every other message that you're wrong.
I am well aware of the byzantine rules and regulations that plague unionized work in Hollywood, and which all but asphyxiate a lot of creative work. But I also know that those rules were born out of a need to thwart a coordinated, pathological effort by studios to keep as much money and control to themselves as possible, and to hell with everyone else.
I don't know where you get this sense of entitlement when it comes to the disposition of other people's work, but it seems necessary to inform you that it is wholly unmerited. The ball you're sitting on and threating to take home does not, in fact, belong to you. And everyone watching you knows it.
It's probably also worth pointing out that the Internet -- the vehicle with which you hope to add to your revenues -- can also be the instrument of your undoing. It is no longer necessary to go through you to get creative works produced and distributed. And, despite your childish and highly destructive efforts to stop it, Internet distribution of entertainment media continues unabated. If you remain inastringent too long, the writers may elect to bypass you entirely and develop and release their work to the Internet directly. At which point, you will have nothing, and the true value of your contributions to the industry will be revealed.
As for me, I don't watch a lot of television, and I can subsist very well on my small library of DVDs, the buffer in the TiVo, Web surfing, and video games. So I frankly don't care if new TV shows come out or not. Yet I have taken valuable time out of my day to tell you this:
Your position is indefensible -- ethically, morally, and fiscally. In short, you're acting like a jerk, and everyone knows it. Even people who don't care about television know you're acting like a jerk. And, just in case it's been unclear to you all this time, acting like a jerk is a bad thing.
Grow the hell up and give the writers their fair due.
