Smallscreen News
TV Fans and bloggers support writers: Dark Tuesday
By Karyn Chenoweth Nov 13, 2007, 2:00 GMT
Members of the Writer\'s Guild of America West picket in front of Sony Entertainment in Culver City, California, USA on 08 November 2007. Writer\'s Guild of America members have been on strike since Monday and are demanding a greater portion of profits derived from DVD and internet sales. EPA/SEAN MASTERSON
Website TV Week says already a total 17 entertainment blogs including Televisionary, Give Me My Remote and Glowy Box, are set to go dark Tuesday, replacing their sites with WGA solidarity statements.
"Some people thought we'd be against the writers because our favorite shows are going away, but we wanted to show that some things are more important than a few shows airing full season," says Glowy Box blogger Liz Pardue, who organized tomorrow's "blog strike."
Front and center reporter Nikki Finke of Deadline Hollywood is claiming 3,000 "Battlestar Galactica" fans, in town for a convention, are pledging to join a picket line with the show's writing staff at Universal Studios on Friday.
CSI fans funded a Burbank aerial banner fly-by with a statement of support.
Fan site AintItCoolNews.com headed by Austinite Harry Knowles and others have linked to a petition supporting the writers that claims more than 44,000 signatures.
AP is reporting tonight that about 500 unionized news writers could soon join their creative colleagues on the picket lines.
The writers, employees of CBS News television and radio, are expected to overwhelmingly approve a strike authorization.
Represented by WGA East, the writers are scheduled to vote Thursday.
Working under an expired contract since April 2005, the writers, who work in New York, Los Angeles, Washington DC and Chicago, may not necessarily stage a work stoppage, but CBS News says it's prepared for the possibility of a strike.
The parties have not been negotiating since January after the union rejected CBS "final offer".
