WGA Strike Coverage

Although it is a widely held belief that media coverage of the strike won't be favorable to the WGA as the AMPTP owns all the media outlets, most of the articles I've read have proven that false. From this AP article titled What do Writers Do? More than just write which gives a brief summary of disparate career paths and jobs of five writers. Another AP article suggests that viewers will quickly fall behind on current events without the topical musings of Jon Stewart, Jay Leno, Letterman, etc. as late night talk shows become the first casualty of the walkout. Lisa de Moraes of the Washington Post has had insightful and mostly writer friendly coverage. She even included an excerpt from an SNL skit lampooning the AMPTP position in one of her articles:

RAT: You know what it costs to make a DVD? 60 cents. You know how much we charge? $29. The writers now want a bigger piece of the profit. What profit? We asked our accountants to figure out what $29 minus 60 cents is. You know what they came up with?

Faux Weekend Update Anchor Amy Poehler: $28.40?

RAT: Negative $13. It's even worse on the Internet! We post movies and television for free.

Poehler: Don't you collect ad revenue from your Web site?

RAT: Amy, how many times do I have to explain this! Does a magazine collect revenue for putting ads in their magazine? It's irrelevant! No one's making any money, Amy. No one! If we were, trust me, the writers would be the first people to get a check.

Also of interest is this article by Jake Coyle of the Associated Press wondering Can the Web Benefit from the Writers Strike? which wraps up by saying, "That there's even a chance of the Web stepping into TV's shoes during the strike, though, is precisely why Hollywood writers and producers are arguing in the first place."