After boasting about their commitment to David Letterman and saying their inclusion on his show will make it superior to Jay Leno's Tonight Show, the Writers Guild of America is panicking and backtracking as it attempts to draw attention away from their ignorant actions, and put it on Jay Leno, who continues to crush Letterman in the ratings.
Of course what the Guild was hoping was people would rally to watch Letterman because they were involved. That backfired on them, as Leno enjoyed his best audience size in about two years. That has the Guild scrambling to cover their rearends, as the obvious rejection of their so-called plight by consumers, has been confirmed by their choice on who they want to watch.
As the strike goes on, people are starting to understand how much money the writers really make and some of the dishonesty involved in making them look like they're one step away from the soup kitchen. That's why they're trying to come up with all sorts of irrelevant issues to hide that fact.
In the case of Leno, his success and the positive response of his fans has the Guild scared. Now that they made the Letterman deal an issue, they've been rebuked by the public through their choice of Leno, as they consider the monologue he's writing himself now, better than that which the writers had put together for him in the past. Many people commenting on the Internet have said they prefer Leno's writing. So much for the Letterman and Guild edge.
The pathetic attack of the Guild on Leno concerns whether he is allowed by the union to write his own material. The draconian control implied in that insinuation will come back further to haunt the guild, as it should.
NBC (GE) is standing behind their leading late-night host, as they say Leno has every right under existing Guild rules to continue writing his monologue.
"The WGA agreement permits Jay Leno to write his own monologue for `The Tonight Show,'" NBC said in a statement. "The WGA is not permitted to implement rules that conflict with the terms of the collective bargaining agreement between the studios and the WGA."
Talking for the Writers Guild, spokesman Neal Sacharow disengenuously said, "Our position is that our strike rules don't conflict here and, because he's (Leno) always been employed as a writer."
To call Jay Leno a writer in any sense like a you would a show writer, is just a bunch of nonsense, and reveals again the weakening power of the Guild.
Jay Leno needs to continue to write his monologue and think of his fans first. The lack of concern by the highly paid members of the Writers Guild for other people in the industry, that could be hurt far worse than they are, has public opinion turning against them.
To now lower themselves to basically calling Jay Leno a glorified writer, makes them look silly and nonsensical.
Keep up the great work and writing Jay! You have every right to keep your audience and fans entertained.
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