Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Writers Guild of America, DC (WGADC) Hails End of Writers Strike

Washington (AP) - Members of the Writers Guild of America, DC (WGADC) hailed the end of the end of the three month long writers strike which has crippled Television, Motion Picture and Political entertainment.

As part of the new contract, Political writers will now have more control over their stories, the explicit permission to slant their coverage to the left, the ability to commit acts of terrorism by not supporting the president, and up to 20 delegates in the Democratic Convention.

WGADC, the third leg of the Writers Guild of America after Writers Guild of America, East and Writers Guild of America, West, had been in a particularly bad position given the 2008 presidential election. Spokesman for the WGADC, David Gelman, head writer for CNN says that the end of the strike could not have come soon enough.

"At first, we figured that the strike would last two, three weeks maximum, but then we hit a stalemate. And while we were picketing, we missed Iowa, New Hampshire, and even Super Tuesday. It's a shame that all this happened without the writers."

Ken Mehlman, former RNC chair and lead negotiator for the interests of the major news outlets, the DNC, and the RNC, also celebrated the end of the strike.

"Are we happy that it's over. Yes. Is it what we wanted 100%? No. But it will have to work for now."

NewsCorp and the RNC had pushed for and exemption for coverage of Sen. John Kerry and a mandatory use of the infamous Howard Dean scream, but these demands were quashed early on. Eventually, both organizations felt that compromise was more important than losing more viewers to open shop media outlets like NPR.

Striking political writers can now get back to the 2008 Presidential election, which both critics and audiences alike have roundly panned. Wolf Sisbert, political commentator for CNN says that it's good that the strike is over.

"At the beginning of the season, you had some really strong characters: the radical libertarian, the war vet, the mill worker's son, the crazy old man, the woman and the black guy, among others. You could see some of the story lines starting to develop, but when the strike hit the producers had to act fast. The producers resorted to pretty much cliche stories, when there was real opportunity for character development. Sadly, some of our favorite characters including the Mexican and the crazy New Yorker were the first to be let go. Now, the writers are going to have to deal with a fairly dull Republican race and a standard Black Man/White Woman "Jungle Fever" plot."

Sisbert added, "Still, the writers could come up with something good."

Late reports from Washington indicate that the Al Gore character will be developed in the next few weeks, and Mike Huckabee will get wrapped up in a terrorist plot to destroy the Little Debbie Snack Cake factory.

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