I just caught up with reading PR Week and came across a story that brought tears to my eyes: last month, The Writers Guild of America West (WGAW) launched its American Idol Truth Tour in protest of reality-show working conditions. Give me a break.
So when does coming up with the crazy ideas to help ordinary people make a spectacle of themselves become a tough job? We’ll I imagine the writers who encourage people to eat slime, fight with mean nannies, and tear down roach invested homes, are in danger of breaking into a sweat. This might be worse than child labor in third world countries.
– David Weiss, WGA vice president, said during an LA rally: “Time cards have been filled out often illegally, people are being asked to work through their lunch breaks . . . and work 15- to 20-hour days, frequently seven days a week.”
If that’s true, then maybe the writers need better representation. Come on, you mean to tell me the writers need a PR campaign to travel around on a bus and cry about the horrible behind the scenes abuses that the public needs to know about? All for a product that has managed to survive longer than it should have that continues to turn television into the vast wasteland?
I say, get off the bus and stop being big babies. Maybe if your life had more reality, you’d find more important issues to protest.