Writers Strike Already Improving American Society As Late Night Propaganda Shows Shut Down
John F. Trent
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The Writers Guild of America announced they went on strike beginning this morning and the strike is already improving American society as all of the late night propaganda shows have shut down.
President Barack Obama talks with Jimmy Kimmel during a Jimmy Kimmel Live! video taping in Los Angeles, California, March 12, 2015. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza) Photo Credit: Pete Souza, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
The Writers Guild of America West announced their strike began this morning writing on Twitter, “The Board of Directors of the Writers Guild of America West and the Council of the Writers Guild of America East, acting upon the authority granted to them by their memberships, have voted unanimously to call a strike, effective 12:01 AM, Tuesday, May 2.”
Writers Guild of America West Twitter
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In a subsequent tweet they explained, “The decision was made following six weeks of negotiating with Netflix, Amazon, Apple, Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery, NBC Universal, Paramount Plus, and Sony under the umbrella of the AMPTP.”
“Though our Negotiating Committee began this process intent on making a fair deal, the studios’ responses have been wholly insufficient given the existential crisis writers are facing. Picketing will begin tomorrow afternoon,” they concluded.
Writers Guild of America West Twitter
Following the announcement of the strike, Deadline reported numerous late night propaganda shows such as The Late Show, Jimmy Kimmel Live!, The Tonight Show, Late Night, and The Daily Show will shut down.
As these shows will no longer be producing new shows, Deadline notes they “are all expected to pivot to re-runs.”
Other programs expected to be affected by the strike are Saturday Night Live, Real Time with Bill Maher, and Last Week Tonight with John Oliver albeit the report notes “final decisions on those shows are expected to come later in the week.”
Seth Meyers speaking at the 2015 San Diego Comic Con International, for “Game of Thrones”, at the San Diego Convention Center in San Diego, California. Photo Credit: Gage Skidmore from Peoria, AZ, United States of America, CC BY-SA 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
One anonymous showrunner informed Deadline that the shows will be in communication with each other, “I have been and will continue to talk to the other shows to see what they’re up to.”
“We’ve got to support the writers — our writers are amazing. That said, the rest of the staff is amazing, and I don’t want to see anybody lose their jobs or lose a paycheck. What’s the happy medium there? Figuring that out, it’s not been easy,” this showrunner added.
A SNL cast member also informed the outlet, “We have to think about our crew too. I absolutely support the writers, and I want the writers to get what they deserve and need, but I don’t want our crew to be out of work. We can’t make this art without each other.”
Stephen Colbert, Evelyn McGee-Colbert, John Oliver, and Kate Norley Photo Credit: Montclair Film, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
These shows going off the air will be a boon for American society as millions of people every night will no longer be subjecting themselves to blatant propaganda.
And that is indeed what these shows are. The writers of these shows even admitted to it albeit they described them as “liberal circle jerks” instead. Megh Wright at Vulture published a number of anonymous comments from writers on the various late night shows back in 2021.
Susan Sarandon via The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon YouTube
One writer told her the shows “felt like a ‘liberal circle jerk.'” This anonymous writer went on to detail, “It seems to be a loose rule that late-night writers are more progressive than hosts, showrunners, and executive producers. Writers get compensated extremely well, but they’re still way more likely to actually know people who are hurting than the same circle of mostly white multimillionaire showrunners and producers who float among the same five shows. When you’ve been crazy rich for over a decade, and so have a lot of your friends, it’s difficult for a lot of these hosts to have any conception of what people are hungry for in the real world.”
The writer continued, “We’re applauding late-night hosts for using their platforms and multimillion-dollar salaries to sob about the state of our nation every other night. Jimmy Kimmel and Stephen Colbert are probably the worst offenders here. The latter is sometimes crying on TV about things nobody else is even that upset about. Trump’s first speech from the White House after Election Night was, predictably, full of lies and fascist propaganda. Colbert wore all black in mourning and stood up to deliver the monologue for the first time since March. Just in case anyone watching had recently suffered a blow to the head and couldn’t detect that symbolism, he made sure to explain, through tears, why he was doing it.”
Bill Maher via Real Time with Bill Maher YouTube
The writer went on to assert, “It’s not that I don’t think his tears were sincere. It’s that they were wasted on something so stupid, and they’re the only ones he chose to broadcast. Where were those tears for George Floyd and every Black American murdered or injured during the Black Lives Matter protests? Where were those tears for the quarter million Americans who have died of COVID? And above all, why would anyone want tears from a comedy show in the first place? Have all of our brains collectively broken this badly? Much of late night devolved into this Aaron Sorkin–ified liberal circle jerk. It’s not productive, it’s not impressive, and it’s definitely not comedy.”
“If the goal is to keep preaching to a mostly white, middle-aged, upper-middle-class audience, then sure, don’t change. Just wait for the next fascist to take office and continue this masturbatory rage ouroboros. There’s clearly good money in it,” the writer concluded.
John Oliver in Last Week Tonight With John Oliver Season 8 Episode 7 (2022), HBO
What do you make of these late night shows shutting down due to the writers strike?
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