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April 18, 2008
A Little Petty
A lovely friday afternoon addition to the bile... the WGA decide to "out" 21 members who went "financial core" during the WGA Strike. (Not on the list is George Clooney, who reportedly went fi-core before the strike.)
I don't object to the idea of allowing membership to know who went fi-core on an informational level, allowing members to draw their own conclusions. But what struck me about this letter is that is was stunningly self-righteous and shows no interest - as it essentially calls on Guild members to shun these 21 people - in explaining why these 21 people made the choice.
One big clue? The only one on the list who is not a soap writer is John Ridley.
Posted by poland at April 18, 2008 01:00 PM
Comments
And shock of shocks, Nikki Finke has proudly and gleefully posted the list on top of her site.
There are already posters over there wondering whether this could constitute blacklisting and thus open the WGA to potential legal action.
The tone of the letter indicates that Verrone and Winship have not learned anything from the strike, and if anything, are angrier now than before they went out. We'll have to see how the WGA membership reacts in the next election cycle.
It's also interesting that during the strike, there were repeated cases of the WGA insisting that soap writers were NOT going fi-core. This would seem to put the lie to that one, too. With all the attempts to rewrite history going on right now (most at Nikki Finke's site), people are going to need to be very careful who or what they regard as a reliable source. The old joke of "Who do you believe? Me or your own lying eyes?" comes to mind...
Posted by: Working AD ![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.mcnblogs.com/thehotblog/nav-commenters.gif)
at April 18, 2008 01:37 PM
When the OJ Simpson trial raged, the soaps suffered at least a halving of their ratings. Another multiple month loss could have killed them off entirely (or at least, killed off a few of the lower rated ones). Would WGA East or West have provided for the lost income to writers that have no jobs to go back to?
Feeling really disgusted by this move.
Posted by: hendhogan at April 18, 2008 01:55 PM
Good GOD. I know the WGA has always viewed financial core status as essentially profane, but it's a right afforded to all unionized workers since, what, 1980!?
This is really, really grotesque.
Posted by: RocketScientist at April 19, 2008 01:13 PM
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