Why Such Union "Bashing?"

The questions are flying in regards to my podcasting blog post. "Why such antagonism toward the writers?" "Why the union bashing?"

I thought I'd take the opportunity to clear up a few things and expand on a conversation thread I've started over at the Video Game Outsiders forum page.

To start, let me say unequivocally that writers deserve compensation for their work. They deserve a cut of DVD sales and online media. My point was and is that they don't need a collective bargaining agreement to get it.

This doesn't make me "anti-union" as a whole either. What I have been writing about is a specific type of union. It is entertainment unions that have earned my skepticism.

White-collar unions (and let's face it, actors, writers and directors are not your typical blue-collar fare) are a joke. They are unions designed to give people the right to potentially earn millions. What's more, these are freelance unions, since most members are not "employed" in the traditional sense by entertainment companies. People just move from project to project. So these unions give people the benefits of an entrepreneurial lifestyle while mitigating the risks associated with such a choice.

But that aside, I'm not taking it out on writers in particular. I write for a living myself. But I also realize that once I sell something, it is sold. Once I negotiate my contract for payment, it is negotiated and done. And if I negotiate a bad deal, then shame on me.

Let's face it: The more established writers could be getting a cut on their own terms anyway. The studios would be willing to pay out more to an established writer. It's always about the risk/benefit ratio.

The trouble is that when you guarantee such payments to everyone, as a business you are not offsetting your potential losses on the plethora of material that fails each year. Sure, the Lost DVDs flew off the shelves, but the Caveman stuff is going straight to hell. While the studios will make a boatload on Lost, they have to offset the risks they took on dozens of tankers this year. (And man! Does ABC ever have some tankers!)

I'm not saying writers aren't getting a raw deal currently, but to expect that you can collectively guarantee a set percentage of revenue overlooks the tremendous risk such an agreement imposes on a company. If one year everything on the schedule fails, you're still forced to pay out money you no longer have. It actually serves to inhibit the taking of risks and reduces creativity. If I know I HAVE to make "x" amount in revenue, I certainly don't want to risk anything on "y."

Writers would do much better for themselves if they were freed up to negotiate their own compensation agreements for each project. That's called capitalism and it works, last time I checked...not perfectly, but far better than the more socialized approaches we are witnessing.

True artists have never been guaranteed their wages. They worked out of passion for their craft. A few became successful along the way. Most did not. That's the way it works.

I'm all for patronizing the arts. (That's why I am so pro-podcasting). But not when confronted with the business end of a big stick. And let's be completely honest. It's the consumer that's ultimately being confronted here. Because we are the ones who will have to pay the increased prices collective bargaining always seems to generate.

Can Podcasters Revolt While Writers Strike?

Is the writer's strike the opportunity podcasters have been waiting for?

I make no attempt to hide it. I'm pretty antagonistic toward entertainment industry unions. What was once a good idea for kids being forced to work in turn-of-the-century factories, is now being used to enable far too many people with mediocre talent to live a dream they have no right to be living.

Let's face it: Most of the stuff generated by the Hollywood machine is simply crap. And if the entertainment managers would just concentrate on producing good stuff, the true talents would make more money because they would be more in demand, the mediocre talent would fade away and we wouldn't be having this strike problem.

We have to be honest here. This strike is not about true talent getting their fair share. It's about mediocre and bad talent making sure they can supplement their job waiting tables. And if the dead weight were simply cut lose, the truly talented writers wouldn't have any complaints.

Now before I get off on a rant about actors thinking they are more important than animators (like with the Simpson's fiasco) and the whole thing regarding royalties for commercials (which is total B.S.), this could be the best thing that ever happened to podcasters.

After all, podcasting is the embodiment of the true entrepreneurial spirit. There are no union rules to follow. There are no crazy demands to strike "for the sake of your union brethren." People podcast (and that includes video podcasts) because they are passionate about their subject and they think that they may be able to make money doing it. That's all they need.

Sure the money isn't great, but they have a dream and they are willing to work for it.

Let me reiterate...THEY ARE WILLING TO WORK FOR IT...NOT QUIBBLE AND NEGOTIATE FOR IT.

I think it's time for America to get a clue. The writer's strike is not about "worker's rights." It's about parasites wanting to suck more from the entertainment beast. And this whole process continues to stifle creativity and dampen the entrepreneurial spirit.

They say they want their, "fair share from new media opportunities," and that they don't want their work "exploited for profit" by unfair agreements. But what they are really doing is keeping themselves from fully exploring this scary new media world with their own innovative ideas. After all, if they really saw the potential of new media they would understand they could bypass the bargaining table completely and go into business for themselves.

Basically the strike keeps writers from having to put their own skin in the game and try for a better model. They just see media companies — big and small — taking all the risks, reaping rewards from those risks and now they want a piece of that pie without taking any risk themselves.

If we believe in the entrepreneurial spirit of this country, it's time to support the individuals who are taking risks to make the entertainment industry better. That doesn't mean ignore what happens in the L.A. basin and not watch traditional forms of entertainments. A lot of good stuff still comes out of there, after all. But it does mean that if you want a more vibrant new media landscape you as a media consumer need to support the people who are doing something to change it.

So this is our opportunity. Ignore the unionized writers. Call B.S. on them and cancel your cable for a few months when the strike hits January. (There will be nothing on anyway.) Then send your cable bill money to your favorite podcast instead. Let's create a new business model that rewards innovators and flushes out the parasites from the system.

Viva la podcasting!