Interview with a striking writer: a candid conversation about US television

Many appealing figures appear on television, genuine talent goes into the production and distribution of various shows. There are inspired moments in both comedy and drama. Technical miracles are performed on a daily basis. However, the overall content of television programming is dominated, in the end, by the terribly narrow profit and ideological interests of the corporate elite.

These interests inevitably come into conflict with the elementary need of the artist to look at the world in a free and unfettered fashion. There are certainly mediocrities and toadies who have no difficulty accommodating themselves to the constraints. For others, it is a source of conflict and even anguish.

The current strike in the entertainment industry, now in its fifth week, pits 12,000 film and television writers against the giant firms. The writers have been demanding an improvement in the rate at which they are paid residuals (royalties) from the sale of their television and film work on DVD and the introduction of a reasonable residual payment system for writers’ material that appears on the Internet and other media.

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