Throughout the writers' strike we will occasionally check in with a member of the Guild to get a sense of what the writers are thinking. Our correspondent, who wishes to remain anonymous, is currently a staff writer for a network prime-time show who moved from New York to Los Angeles six months ago to take the job.
A few weeks into the current WGA strike this is what I have learned: People really, really hate media conglomerates, possibly even irrationally so. Even more than they hate Hollywood writers. I'm talking about regular people here, or at least people who are in no way tied to the entertainment industry.
Over the last few weeks I've walked on picket lines in both Los Angeles and New York—experiences that were largely similar in their range of moments of both surreal (trying to avoid walking alongside Nora Ephron for fear of being unable to contain my rage at the romantic-comedy horrors she has visited upon this earth) and mundane (wondering how many calories-per-hour picketing burns; does it count as an official day's workout?). Picketing, and for that matter simply existing, in both cities has also allowed for interaction with people out there who have no horse in this race—which is to say, most people—and what you realize is this: Regular people may not like us, but they hate them.