His statement is brief and unequivocal:
I stand with the writers. The Guild's demand is a test of whether media corporations are going to give writers a fair share of the wealth their work creates or continue concentrating profits in the hands of their executives. I urge the producers to work with the writers so that everyone can get back to work.
Leno, Letterman, Kimmel and O'Brien have gone dark. Steve Carell won't cross the picket line, and has single-handledly shut down The Office. And Jon Stewart ... yes, that's a hero.
My friend Alan Sepinwall of the Newark Star-Ledger explains the stakes:
Why are the writers striking?
Without boring you too much with talk of contract law, what it boils down to is this: for decades, the TV business was set up in a way in which everyone -- the studios, the writers, the directors, the actors -- made a lot of their money on reruns, both reruns on the networks and in syndication. Whenever a writer's episode got repeated, he'd get a check.
In the current market, however, reruns are dead or dying. Fox never airs repeats of "24," for instance, or ABC with "Lost." Now the money is on DVDs and, soon (if not now), the Internet. The WGA has already lost the battle on DVDs, thanks to a short-sighted agreement on home video rights in the '80s (back when no one thought that people would pay money to own dozens and dozens of unwieldy videotapes); they get a tiny percentage for all those DVDs on your shelf. The Internet, however, is uncharted territory. No one knows how much money is there, but everyone knows that's where the business is moving, and the WGA -- and, when their contracts come up next year, the actor and director unions -- wants their piece of it. The writers say they only want what they're entitled to, the studios say they're being unreasonable, negotiations have barely progressed at all, and so now the writers are on strike.
For more, visit the Writers Guild of America's strike update page. I hope the other candidates will follow Sen. Obama's leadership and support the Guild as well.
[update] I should include this excerpt from a speech Sen. Obama gave on Saturday:
One year from now, we have the chance to tell all those corporate lobbyists that the days of them setting the agenda in Washington are over. I have done more to take on lobbyists than any other candidate in this race - and I've won. I don't take a dime of their money, and when I am President, they won't find a job in my White House. Because real change isn't another four years of defending lobbyists who don't represent real Americans - it's standing with working Americans who have seen their jobs disappear and their wages decline and their hope for the future slip further and further away. That's the change we can offer in 2008.
When I am President, I will end the tax giveaways to companies that ship our jobs overseas, and I will put the money in the pockets of working Americans, and seniors, and homeowners who deserve a break. I won't wait ten years to raise the minimum wage - I'll raise it to keep pace every single year. And if American workers are being denied their right to organize when I'm in the White House, I will put on a comfortable pair of shoes and I will walk on that picket line with you as President of the United States.
updated again: According to two commenters below, John Edwards joins in:
The striking Writers Guild members are fighting an important battle to protect their creative rights. These writers deserve to be compensated fairly for their work, and I commend their courage in standing up to big media conglomerates. As someone who has walked picket lines with workers all across America and as a strong believer in collective bargaining, I hope that both sides are able to quickly reach a just settlement.
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