WGA West President Patric Verrone and SAG President Alan Rosenberg were scheduled to meet with House and Senate lawmakers as well as members of the FCC last week.
Jockeying for position
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Pitched battle
In taking their cases to the public, writers and execs could use script doctors.
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Monday, November 19, 2007 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 2 National Desk 1 inches; 33 words Type of Material: Correction
WGA representative: An article in Sunday's Calendar section about public relations for both sides in the writers strike called Sherry Goldman a Writers Guild of America spokeswoman. She is a WGA East spokeswoman.
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Sunday, November 25, 2007 Home Edition Sunday Calendar Part E Page 2 Calendar Desk 1 inches; 31 words Type of Material: Correction
WGA representative: An article last Sunday about public relations for both sides in the writers strike called Sherry Goldman a Writers Guild of America spokeswoman. She is a WGA East spokeswoman.
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There's plenty of irony in this PR battle among master image-makers. Both sides are experts in influencing the public and responding to their tastes, Shaiken noted. Although both have exploited new media with Internet videos and blogs, old-fashioned shoe leather still resonates in the public mind. "Now," he said, "it is a reality show on the sidewalk in terms of how this is played out."
In a period of economic insecurity, there is much general sympathy for people who are seen as trying to make a living and fearing major changes will undermine their position, he said. "It's a strike that more broadly resonates with working Americans, even though the range of writers' income is all over the map," he said.
Part of the union's strategy was to paint the writers as middle-class "next-door neighbors," said a WGA spokeswoman, Sherry Goldman. While their incomes might average out to be middle-class (just over $94,000 a year for TV writers), they range from hand-to-mouth to top-of-the-hill. Many are next-door neighbors with celebrity friends who can get them air time on "Entertainment Tonight."
The writers' and actors' unions have been working together for two years, Goldman said. "Their support added a visibility," she said. "There's a certain amount of media interested in covering it from the entertainment point of view. Writers are somewhat unknown. CBS and Viacom are very visible names."
Though writers tend to be wordy, chief negotiators came up with a simple mantra that Goldman used so many times it left her hoarse: "If they get paid, we get paid."
The early returns
The writers' strategy seemed to pay off despite the public- relations challenges posed by such as a large and disparate national membership that isn't always united.
Publicists and crisis managers, however, said it was too early to issue a definitive score card. According to one school of thought, public sympathy always goes to the strikers anyway. Another has it that whoever is the first to walk away from the table, costing many people their daily living, will have to shoulder the blame. When talks broke down, each side immediately blamed the other.
