Print  EMAIL

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

Strike one for democracy

admin, admin
Published: February 28, 2008

With the end of the writer’s strike, the law of unintended consequences has come crashing home to haunt the studios.

Gone are the millions of apathetic young people studios had trained to bypass the ballot box in favor of “Friends” and bar hopping.

College-age crowds had little interest in politics four years ago. But after watching the news for 90 days instead of sitcoms and drama, they have been radicalized in ways that will make the 1968 elections and “Days of Rage” look like a Victorian tea party. This gang is interested in something more like the Boston Tea Party.

The big studios were used to having their way.

Disney tried to keep artist’s royalties for video sales, but in a 1991 case, judges sided with the actors, making Disney pay for work done as far back as the 1950s. Peggy Lee and Louis Prima’s voice work on classics such as 1955’s “Lady and the Tramp” and 1967’s “ The Jungle Book” finally won their long overdue back pay. But Disney still refuses to pay many others who must sue to collect.

This dispute is almost a twin of the 1990s battle, with one critical difference. The Screen Actor’s Guild didn’t strike over a few back paychecks. But every member of the Writer’s Guild of America was being cheated and came at the studios with everything they had. We haven’t heard such impassioned, eloquent argument in favor of fairness since Dr. King took on the U.S. government and won.

These are writers. They know how to get people riled up. The WGA ran videos online of show biz honchos like Rupert Murdoch bragging about the billions they rake in from video rentals and sales. (Check out “Voices of Uncertainty” on YouTube.)

It was a deadly combination punch, using their vivid outrage and the mogul’s own smug words to pummel them. The studios had nothing to use for a counterpunch, hoping to starve the writers into crawling back, begging bowls in hand, desperate for a few crumbs.

But the lack of scripts hurt studio profits. First, the actors sided with their comrades-in-arts, the writers. That was expected. Second, the public sided with the writers, too, and the media played up the strike as if it would never end. Clear Channel, Disney and Time-Warner stocks have plummeted since October, losing almost a third of their value.

Smaller producers, like David Letterman’s “World Wide Pants” began defecting from the pack and made deals with their writers. Comedy news hosts Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart ranted and railed in agony over the loss of their scripts.

That was the beginning of the end.

Stewart and Colbert are incredibly influential with the college-age crowd, many of whom have never voted. Their viewership rose sharply and was exposed to political thought as never before. The Census Bureau reports that 18-24 year-olds used to be the largest group of non-voters in the country. Then the 2004 election saw an increase of almost five million young voters. That number will jump again in 2008.

These new voters mobilized and networked for their candidates in the presidential primaries. Young voter registration is at an all-time high, 70 percent, according to the New Voters Project.

Studios that relied on vapid young viewers to avoid voting and watch “Heroes” on election night found themselves friendless. The Internet was stealing viewers from the networks. Reality shows just couldn’t cut it. According to EMarket, since 2006, 18-24 year-olds get most of their video online.

And these figures may be low, because young people usually use cell phones, and pollsters don’t call cell phones. Who needs a landline? Who needs a TV?
Old people.

Young adults prefer news targeted to them with humor and liberal views. Jon Stewart’s “Daily Show,” is up 17 percent and “The Colbert Report” is up 21 percent among 18-to-24-year-olds since 2007, according to Media Life’s Kevin Downey. The Nielsen Ratings put Keith Olberman’s snarky news/commentary “Countdown” ahead of “The O’Reilly Factor” among those 18-24 for the first time recently. The average age of O’Reilly’s audience? Just shy of 71 years old. Old-school broadcast mogul Sumner Redstone, age 84, and his generation just don’t get it.

College kids can’t relate to “60 Minutes,” with a cast averaging 68 years old. They get their news online, or from comedy/news hybrids, and are angry at what they hear. Young audiences learned they were being swindled, and had traded their votes for pretty pictures and happy stories.

The industry that rewarded apathy with ads for overpriced crap was hemorrhaging money and losing suckers. One-time role models Britney Spears and Paris Hilton turned out to be pathetic train wrecks. The Iraq war is a trillion-dollar scam that bankrupted the country, yet the president hands out tax breaks to billionaires. What the…!? Maybe it’s time to grow up and snatch the keys away from the old fools who have driven our country to this hellish state.

T. Max Redalia, Opinion Editor
Published: February 25, 2008 Section:Opinion

Are young people ready to pay attention and start voting? Why not? Could they possibly do any worse than their parents? It’s scary being in charge, but it beats slavery. Young voters have lived like the man in the Pink Floyd song, “Wish You Were Here.”

“Did you exchange/ a walk-on part in The War/ for a lead role in a cage?”

The U.S. needs youth on the front lines, needs fresh energy and ideas. And the young could use more responsibility, even at the expense of a little bit of comfort. It was too cozy in those video cages. It’s time to come out and taste the air. What’s that wonderful smell blowing in the wind?

It’s called “Democracy.”

And we owe it all the greed and short-sightedness of men like Rupert Murdoch.

 Print  EMAIL

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

Leave a Reply

Name (required)

Mail (will not be published) (required)

Website