I was asked the other day what I thought would happen with the Writers Guild, if they would go on strike.
I haven't paid close attention, but the WGA just got the biggest strike authorization vote they've ever had -- 97.85%, so it seems near-certain they'll go on strike. The only reason they won't is if the companies are scared of that huge, united vote and agree to terms, which is very unlikely given their history. Whether the strike will be long or short is the bigger question. Most tend to be long, though none have had that strong an authorization vote. The DGA has only gone on strike once -- for about 15 minutes. They generally wait to see what the WGA gets after going on strike, and then settle with the producers for that. Their contract date, though, has moved up a bit from the past, I think, and expires at the end of June, so that only leaves two months for the WGA to settle its contract before the DGA can "know" what it's supposed to do. And two months would be a fairly short strike. My pure guess is that the DGA won't strike, but I don't know enough about the issues. The issues have changed a bit from what they generally have been in the past, now that the Internet and streaming are settled as foundations of the Industry. And when I think of that, I can only shake my head and laugh, because the last time there was a long, protracted strike was 2007-8 – and that was because the studios insisted it was too early to know if there would be any money from the Internet…when it was abundantly, blatantly clear even then, indeed studios were already making money from the Internet. The point being that whatever the AMPTP insists about streaming, you can rest assured it is not true and that even they don’t believe it. The core to most basic issues, of course, is money. And even if “residuals” aren’t the factor they once were, they’re nonetheless related to all money issues. I’ve explained what residuals are to people who wonder why writers should be paid more and continually after they’ve been paid (I remember being contacted by a morning radio show on the East Coast back in 2007 and asked if I would call in to talk with the hosts, which I did, made memorable because it meant I had to get up at 4 AM…). The short version is that residuals are delayed compensation that is built into the original contract when signed. You get paid less upfront so the producer can afford to proceed, on the agreement that you’ll get paid more later on when (and if) money comes in. But my pal Mark Evanier re-posted his own much better and much more detailed – and very interesting – description of what residuals are and how they work (and why) that’s well-worth reading, not just as a matter related to strikes, but how the film and TV industry work, period. You can find it here.
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I haven’t written about Tucker Carlson being fired by Fox “News” because I just haven’t cared enough. To be clear, I’m thrilled he was fired – it’s good for democracy – but to me, that’s pretty much the end of the story. The “Why?” is of little interest to me. If you have fallen off a cliff and are hanging on to a ledge by a hand, with a 10,000 feet drop below, and someone above yells, "I'm throwing a rope down,” the idea of yelling back, “Why?” probably will not occur to anyone. The fact that someone threw a rope and saved you is all that matters.
Now, yes, the “Why?” behind Tucker Carlson being fired is something fun to ponder. But that’s largely all it is, something to ponder. And honestly, I not only don’t think most analysis of The Reason is anything more than just guesses – my sense is that there isn’t any One Reason, but rather that were a lot of reasons that built up over time, and something else happened, and it wasn’t The Reason, but just finally too much, the last straw and “Goodbye, don’t let the door hit you when you leave.” For that matter, most of the reasons guessed at are things that had been going on for a long time and Fox likely knew all about. His misogyny, his conflicts with his bosses, his still pushing election fraud, his toxic workplace, his emails that got released during the Dominion lawsuit, his lack of sponsors, most of whom had dropped him. None of these came as a sudden, shocking surprise to the powers that be at Fox “News.” More to the point, whatever reason he was fired for, it was not because of his fascist, near-treasonous views. He’s been slamming Ukraine, supporting Putin and Russia, criticizing vaccines (despite getting vaccinated himself), insisting there was no Insurrection, encouraging belief that the election was stolen, smearing women and minorities and more. And it never got him fired. So, whatever The Reason he finally did get fired, it wasn’t for any of that. Which means The Reason is pretty unimportant. At worse, it was because – to Fox “News” he finally crossed the line and went too far. But of course, in the real world, Tucker Carlson went too far long ago. He’s been fascist, misogynistic, racist, anti-Semitic, White Supremacist, Russia loving, near-treasonous for years. And Fox “News” will remain who it has always been. Just without Tucker Carlson. By the way, that’s no small thing. As extremist and divisive as Fox “News” is, Carlson had a deeper reach into fascism and conspiracy theories and giving those idea and those voices a platform than the others at Fox. So, while Fox “News” was fine with tolerating a Tucker Carlson for years – and may find another one eventually – the overall channel generally focused more on their basic extreme-right, divisive agenda of Democrats being evil, Joe Biden being horrible and liberals are woke panderers and destroying what was good about America in the 1840s. So, in the end, I’m just glad that Tucker Carlson is gone from Fox “News.” He show up someone, probably on his own online service like Glenn Beck, Alex Jones Mark Levin, Joe Rogan and others. Or something else. Like enter politics. Or whatever. But “Why” he is gone just doesn’t matter to me. I just like that he’s gone, and it was done by Fox. In fact, I think I’ll the best explanation of why Tucker Carlson is gone comes from lunatic MAGA pastor Shane Vaughn who pouts out lunatic videos. And so, I think his views on the subject are the best way to go out, and we’ll give him the final word. "Tucker Carlson is gone because of spiritual warfare. I want you to listen closely to me. There is something much bigger than the elites. There's something much bigger than Charles Schwab, George Soros, or Rupert Murdoch.” Wait, Charles Schwab?? Never mind, back to Pastor Vaughn. "There is something that is working for the destruction of America. It works in the background. You don't see it. You like to call it the Cabal, all the podcasters love to talk to you about the Cabal, they love to talk around about Black Rock, and that's fine, and it's all true. But ladies and gentlemen, you are focusing on the symptoms, rather than the disease.” And what is that disease? It goes beyond Q, he says. Indeed, it goes to Alpha and Omega. And finally, he gets to the nub of it all. “Beyond all of that, there are some people that know what's going on, and we know how to fight against it because we know that Tucker Carlson was a victim of demonic power." Demonic power got rid of Tucker Carlson. That explanation of The Reason is as good as any. Especially when fascist, misogynistic, racist, anti-Semitic, White Supremacist, Russia loving, near-treasonous and reality are too hard to face. I love that Disney is suing Gov. Ron DeSantis. If all he had done was push for that tax board change, he likely could have "gotten away" with it. But he's kept attacking Disney and pushing other actions -- when all they did was voice disagreement with a bill -- which speaks to the charges in the suit (that includes violating their right of free speech).
By the way, making DeSantis's actions more weird is that he's attacking Disney for planning to invest $527 MILLION in new development for tourism in the state!! That's strange enough for any Republican who always claim to be so "pro-business." But for a likely presidential candidate, it's borderline inexplicable and almost lunatic. If you didn't see Last Week Tonight with John Oliver last night, the Main Story was on cryptocurrency. This is a follow-up to a story they did five years ago, but from a different angle. Not what it is, but a look at three particular companies that are involved in different areas of crypto, all of which are in serious legal trouble. The report doesn't delve into the minutiae of crypto details, so it's easy to follow -- but more importantly, beyond being interesting, it's very funny since the subject lends itself to scathing ridicule. It’s very weird to feel disappointed by a settlement of $787.5 million. But it seems that a whole lot of people are understandably disappointed by the Fox-Dominion $787.5 million settlement.
The money is monumental. No matter how much money a company has, paying out $787.5 million has to have some impact. But, of course, “some” is likely minor and short term, because, after all, the parent company, Fox Corporation, has a valuation of $23 billion, and the ad revenue keeps rolling in. (Side note: What kind of negotiation went into that “.5 million” part of the settlement. “No!! We will not accept $787 million. It’s $787.5 million, or we’re going to trial!!!” Either that or, “No!! We will not ever, never pay $788 million. But make it $787.5 million, and we’ve got a deal.” “How about we split the difference -- $787.7 million?” No!! We’re holding firm. $787.5 or we’ll take our chances in court!”) It's a two-fold disappointment. The first goes beyond the $1.6 billion originally sued for compensatory damages, and includes looking forward to how many billions a jury might have awarded in punitive damages. But it’s the second that’s harder to take – that Fox “News” does not appear required to make any acknowledgment of lying on air (let alone repeated acknowledgements for several weeks), and so the vast Fox audience will likely go blissfully unaware and ignorant of reality. Which, of course, is on-brand for Fox. Unfortunately, for better or worse, Dominion was suing on behalf of its company, and not for the country. And the company is valued at $80 million. So, when uncertain how a jury will decide, no matter how much evidence makes you confident you’ll win – and knowing how many appeals there will be, which might take years -- getting a guaranteed settlement right now of $787.5 million is disappointing to many others, but utterly understandable for the company. All this said, although it’s likely that just having to pay money (even that much money) and not acknowledge lying means Fox “News” will be close to business as usual, it also seems likely that this settlement will not have zero impact on how Fox “News” does business. After all, should election fraud and Dominion voting machines come up in the 2024 election and beyond (and sorry, “should” is the wrong word, because “when” is the right one, since it will come up in today’s Republican Party), Fox knows that all its private emails and other evidence that came to light during the Dominion discovery process are still on record – as is the judge’s ruling that Fox “News” did lie to the extent that they weren’t even allowed to argue that they didn’t. So, while I’m absolutely sure that Fox will be Fox, there has to be a certain wariness now at the channel that there’s a limit how far they can go without again putting themselves at risk. All the more so because there is still a pending lawsuit against Fox “News” by Smartmatic about its voting machines. And this suit is for even more – $2.7 billion. Moreover, although Smartmatic too is, of course, suing on behalf of the company, it says it has a different perspective. And after the settlement was announced, Smartmatic released a statement that said, “Dominion’s litigation exposed some of the misconduct and damage caused by Fox’s disinformation campaign. Smartmatic will expose the rest.” So, yes, the settlement is disappointing to many Americans. And no, it’s not likely that Fox “News” will change its business practices all that much. But – they are now on notice that here is much more they can lose. So, it is no unreasonable to think that how Fox “News” deals with election fraud in the future will, at the very least, be done more carefully than before. On the other hand, it can’t be done much less carefully than before… If you didn't see Last Week Tonight with John Oliver on Sunday, the Main Story was on farmworkers. It was a great report, not only for making clear how important they are, but also because -- for all the far right likes to slam illegal immigrants -- the story makes clear how so many of them are doing a job almost no U.S. citizens want to do, because it's so difficult and the conditions are so terrible. And the story also points out how conditions can be made even just a little better, and (in a surprising way) have been. On top of that, the piece is extremely funny. |
AuthorRobert J. Elisberg is a political commentator, screenwriter, novelist, tech writer and also some other things that I just tend to keep forgetting. Feedspot Badge of Honor
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