WGBGB: Val's House Has No Mirrors?

(Editor's note: this is republished from 2008. I had taken it offline as a draft, but put it live again because I think there's some revisionist history going on with the D'Orazio/Sims thing. I might try to restore the proper date if I can track it down.)

Wow. Now this is ridiculous. OK, it passed that point long ago. Now that Val has put all comments into moderation, she's actually going on a crusade against me.

She used my CIVIL DISCUSSION with Marc Guggenheim (one that he didn't express having a problem with at all) where I reported him to the WGA and equates it to the possibility of comic fans stalking and/or physically harming comic book professionals.

You know...taking Guggenheim's own public words on the same message board we were having the conversation on and then debate him on it...that's just like a stalker.

When called on it, here are the examples she gave in order to try to justify the extreme she was taking it to:

Example 1:

I find the fact that Kevin Huxford got involved with the personal life of a comic book professional absolutely chilling.

This is the same person who wrote on my blog alleged personal details of another freelancer's life. Ugly stuff, and rather sexist.

There seems to be a pattern, here.

These are things that are scary and cross the line. It is the job of moderators on boards and blogs to monitor this behavior.

These are the things that make me research security options for conventions and libel laws governing the Internet, and I feel 100% comfortable doing so.

The fact that I had to even say the previous sentence pretty much sums it all up.

Sub-topic closed.

By the way: she doesn't allow any comments from me on her page, while she continues (from the Devin Grayson thing) to try to smear my name through the mud.

Example 2:

Juan, say you run into somebody in your community and you two have a discussion about community policy or recycling or whatever. The other person violently disagrees with you, and insists that you admit he is right.

When you do not admit that he is right, he secretly follows you home and goes through your garbage to see if you were recycling properly or if your lawn adhered to the community codes. When he found something to pin on you, he goes to the sanitation department or the community board and reports you.

Now, the worst that could happen in this instance is that you would pay a fine. Certainly not on the level of "Taxi Driver," right?

But who does something like that to a stranger who happened to not share the same views as himself? What is the mental process behind a such a decision?

I've disagreed with you on this board before, Juan, but I do not go online looking for dirt on you to get you in some sort of trouble as the result of our online disagreement. It would never occur to me as something that people do.

And when things go from "conversation about comics" to "contacting the IRS or employer or WGA or whatever," when the fan in question is now an element in this freelancer's personal life -- there is a serious problem.

And in that case, the moderator of the board should have stepped in as soon as those things were mentioned.

Oh, now she's continuing the slamming of Newsarama that she claims she's not doing. For the record, people did step up as soon as they were aware of it (the reporting to WGA). That's part of how I realized my actions were causing problems for others and then decided to now PUBLICLY leave Newsarama (as I had already cut ties before that) and ShotgunReviews.

Example 3:

And I must say, this moderation feature is awesome!

Oh...I personally take that as her glee in deleting my one attempted post to call her on the twist and any others she might have deleted.

Example 4:

Juan,

A fan contacting someplace related to a freelancer's job or other related personal life issues -- no matter what the circumstances -- is crossing the line.

It's not motivated by a positive impulse. It seems to be more motivated from wanting to make an impact on this public figure's life -- and, in that way, becoming a public figure himself.

And it worked, didn't it?

And now we get to what she really thinks is going on, eh?

I didn't do this to create a name for myself. When I quit Newsarama and Shotgun, I had no idea what else I was going to do. I had just recently started blogging more at Shotgun (a site I miss being a part of). I knew I'd continue reviewing books on my own, because I believed a majority of the views I received on YouTube were still going to be there. I didn't expect any kind of bump from what happened...not positive, anyway. When Rich covered it, I was just glad that there'd be enough attention to insure that no one blamed Matt Brady or Troy Brownfield for anything I said or did.

I haven't actually become much of a public figure. I have a blog. A BLOG. Do THAT many people know my name? Please.

The accusation is extremely ironic, given that it is coming from you, the woman who made herself a public figure by savaging DC Comics due to what she perceived as misogyny with their books and stories of a ripped vagina. If only you had worked at Marvel Comics when it was a boys club (as Gail Simone described it), your fame would be due to savaging Marvel...and your ripped vagina.

You do understand that telling the world about what you perceive to be an environment that encouraged misogyny is impacting the personal lives of multiple people there? Just because you see a faceless target of a corporation doesn't mean that there are no faces behind it to be impacted. And when you keep it anonymous, you cause rampant speculation where even the innocent are thought to be guilty.

That ignores the point that it seems more likely that your difficulties at DC were caused by your incompetency, when you, an ex-DC assistant editor, couldn't tell the difference between Jefferson Pierce and John Henry Irons, despite the book referring to the character by name several times.

There's the additional irony that you deciding to try to drag me through the mud with your exaggerations is just serving to extend what ever 15 minutes of fame I might have gotten from having that talk with Guggenheim.

And to think...when you didn't agree with my comments on Devin Grayson (which weren't nearly as bad as you tried to make them out to be), you cautioned me to fear legal repercussions. I guess that's because she's a public figure and I'm not a...wait a minute. ;)

Jay Leno Weekdays @ 10pm?

According to the NY Times, Jay Leno will be seen at 10pm Eastern & Pacific every weeknight starting in 2009.

Ugh.

This basically means 5 less TV shows (scripted or "reality) a season. This means less slots for shows like LIFE, JOURNEY MAN and MY OWN WORST ENEMY to via for. I doubt that it means less derivative product (it won't automatically shrink the Law & Order franchise, for instance).

Less original product and less jobs.

Verily, this doth suck.

Tyler Perry: Busted By Union

OK. So the news hit on Wednesday, but I was waiting on a key piece of information before I'd be ready to talk about it here.

Nikki Finke has the best coverage, for the most part, but had missed one key point: what happened to the fired writers?

It took a weekend of Google alerts, but I found out that they received a financial settlement from Tyler Perry's company for an undisclosed amount. I imagine that it will include residuals for the episodes they already completed work on, but can't say for certain.

So, Mr. Tyler "I'm not Disney/I haven't seen one thin dime" Perry fought the WGA...and the WGA won. On a Thanksgiving weekend that was hard to find things to be thankful for on a personal level, this managed to make it on to that unfortunately short list.

You're Entering The Tyler Perry All Spin Zone

Tyler Perry gave an exclusive interview to Sistas Talking Tyler Perry. I have to say that his answers don't pass the smell test:

Yolanda Ro: One question, that the readers are asking, is why wouldn't someone in your financial position, at the very least, provide the writers with health care insurance?

Tyler Perry: I don't want people to think I'm walking around with $300 million and won't give people health insurance. There are all these articles about me making $200 million from "House of Payne" but that's not true. I haven't gotten one dime off the show--not one thin dime. Nobody writes you a check for $200 million. TBS doesn't have a contract to write me a check for $200 million. It could take up to 5 years for "House of Payne" to make that amount of money. But the initial investment had to be made by me. Every dime that has been put into "House of Payne", to pay the actors and writers, have come from me doing plays and movies; from black folk who have been with me all the time. The writers knew that I even went into my own personal checking account and gave all 300 employees $1000 bonuses for Christmas.

That's just ludicrous. There's no way House of Payne is airing on TBS for free...which means he's not telling the truth. With the number of episodes it has aired, money has certainly come in from the show itself to pay the ongoing expenses. As far as the upfront costs to have started putting the show together before he had a deal with TBS, that's a case of him getting credit for what he's supposed to do. If you want to have your own production company, you're putting the money up. If you want to have your own studio, you're putting the money up. You get to reap the lion share of the profits, but you don't get to cry "poor me" along the way. Especially since he never seemed to cry poor on any of the movies he's produced from his plays.

Tyler Perry: This is what I was trying to get WGA to understand with the deal; I'm not Disney, and I'm not CNN. This is me, by myself. I'm one man with 300 employees. The deal they wanted me to sign was a deal I couldn't afford. And the moment I refused to sign, the very next day, there were all these articles printed about me being a "union-buster". The next day they were calling me racist and picketing outside the party. They waited right until the party to picket, thinking they had me over a barrel, and that I would cave in, but I don't give into extortion. If it had not been for the NAACP stepping in, things would have gotten really ugly. Originally WGA tried to get the NAACP on their side but it didn't work out that way.

By the way, he acknowledges later that he has deals with all of the other unions. Not crying too poor for that, eh? He just feels his writers aren't worth as much because he's previously done all of his writing, in my opinion. Since these are his creations that they're playing with, he feels as though they're not doing enough work to justify the compensation they should be getting.

By the way: extortion? Please. You use all legal advantages you have in negotiation. Where else should they have picketed? Where else would be effective?

Yolanda Ro: Did you ever promise the writers benefits, residuals, or union contracts once the show took off? Tyler Perry: No. They were never promised anything. What was said to them is "here's the deal--The show is a non-union show". Each writer made six figures for less than nine months of work. Every time they wrote a script they received between $7,000-$10,000; In addition they were also receiving a paid salary by the week. Furthermore, WGA did not call me, I called them. It was 'me' making that move. I called them 5 months ago to begin negotiating a deal. These writers clearly knew that. I have deals with every union except WGA and I was trying to get into WGA because I wanted better writers--and because I was working too hard. I had to outline the show, tell them what I wanted, give them ideas, and then rewrite the script. It was taking 16-18 hours for them to write the show. The actors were frustrated, the crew was frustrated, everybody was frustrated because we would go in to shoot the show, but the script was bad. So I made it through that first year but I told them " I can't do this anymore". After I began negotiations with WGA, I didn't threaten to fire them. I just told them they were going to have to get on their job and step up their game.

I find it hard to believe that the WGA would be trying to press their case with the state labor board if Perry was truly trying to get things rolling with the union. Hard to make a case that someone fired workers for attempting to organize if they were welcoming the union.

Yolanda Ro: Can you address the accusations that you are racist, and also the rumors that you replaced the four black writers with white writers? Tyler Perry: That's not true. I let go of four writers in LA but I kept three writers in Atlanta--two are white and one is black. I hired four new black writers; One of them was Myra J from the Tom Joyner Show. When she came to work for me the union originally told her, since she hadn't done anything in four years, she could work for me. But once she came to work they began sending these harassing letters saying she had better not work for me. I sit here and look at these people knowing that they've never been able to do anything...knowing that I gave them their first opportunity, and for these four black writers to call me racist...it's ridiculous.

Ugh. No, no one called him racist in that way. What they suggested was that he was taking advantage of their being black because he knew that it is often harder for black writers to find work.

And their first opportunity? Some of those fired (if not all) were WGA members. In order to become a member, you have to have sold a script at the very least. You can't enter until you're doing work and as soon as you're doing work, you need to enter. Of course, his basically saying they should be grateful that he ever gave them a job is right in line with the accusations of the writers.

The Undying Tyler Perry Story

From the Philadelphia Tribune:

Reportedly, Perry’s attorney, Matt Johnson, said that the four were fired because of poor work performance. Griffin, Moore, Brown-Jackson and Ferrell had worked on more than 100 episodes of Perry’s series, now syndicated on FOX. The three remaining writers were asked to stay on, and two did.

“Up to that point, we wrote 100 episodes of ‘House of Payne,’ said Ferrell, who was fired on his 3 year-old son’s birthday. “The show won three Image Awards last year — one, for the best comedy on television, and we just had a ‘table read’ in Atlanta with Tyler Perry and the actors. We got a standing ovation on the scripts we wrote, and his exact words were, ‘These are golden!’ This was just a week ago. So that was just totally ridiculous and absurd that it was because of our work.

“And logically, it doesn’t make sense. You wouldn’t hire people and let them write 100 episodes for you … TBS was so pleased with the show that they gave him another 26 episodes. So he brings us back to write the rest of the 126 episodes. We wrote 16 of them, and then all of a sudden he’s not pleased with our work? That just doesn’t make sense.”

...

“The day after he fired us, they called the Writer’s Guild and wanted to go union,” Ferrell disclosed. “He fired us Monday, and wanted to go union Tuesday morning. So basically, he’s just throwing it in our face(s) saying, ‘OK. You guys brought this to me — trying to make me go union. So I’m going to go union so I can avoid all the flack, but I’m going to fire you, so you won’t receive any of the benefits from it.’”

Yeah, Perry and his lawyer seem to be doing a piss-poor job of making this go away.

WGA Writers Banned From Working For Perry Or Osbournes

From the WGA website:

To Our Fellow Members,

Last week, you may have become aware of our ongoing dispute with Tyler Perry’s production companies, which fired four writers because of their efforts to organize Perry’s series, House of Payne. Pickets were up at his new studio’s grand opening Saturday night in Atlanta.

Now, we write to inform you of another labor dispute.

Fox has ordered a primetime comedy-variety show featuring Ozzy Osbourne and his family, and has engaged FremantleMedia North America, the company behind American Idol, to produce it. Because they wanted to hire WGA members to write the show, Fremantle contacted the WGAW to see if we would agree to a sub-standard contract. Attempting to pay as little as possible to the writers on the show, Fremantle asked to treat it as “half-scripted” and pay greatly reduced writing fees to those writers who wrote skits, interview material, intros, and "outros.” Although all of the writing on the show is of a type traditionally covered by our MBA (in such shows as The Carol Burnett Show and Laugh-In), Fremantle wanted to treat certain portions of the show as “reality content," not cover the writers who create it, and lower the compensation of the WGA-covered writers, arguing that they would only be responsible for writing part of the show.

We refused to agree to such a deal because it would drastically undermine hard-won minimums and standards. While we have covered some shows produced by Fremantle, they insist that other shows, including American Idol, The Price is Right, and Million Dollar Password, do not have writers and should not be covered by a WGA contract.

Now it is clear that Fremantle’s intention is to bring their low cost, non-union business model into traditional genres – first game shows, then comedy-variety. Soon, no WGA-covered writing will be safe from their aggressive undermining of our contract. We cannot allow this encroachment to continue.

Accordingly, WGA East and West members may not write for the Osbourne variety show (working title: The Osbournes: Loud and Dangerous). Any members who perform writing services on that show do so at their own peril as they will be violating WGA Working Rule 8 and could be fined up to 100% of their compensation for that work. Both Guilds notified agents and other representatives of this development through an Action Alert issued yesterday.

The alert also reminded agents that they cannot send clients who are members of either Guild to write for Tyler Perry's production companies. The WGAW has filed unfair labor practice charges based on the unlawful discharge of the House of Payne writers and continuing bad faith bargaining. Members who accept these jobs will also be in violation of Working Rule 8.

We believe that denying Fremantle and Tyler Perry members of the Writers Guilds East and West may convince them that they will be unable to produce professional quality entertainment content and that they will see the wisdom and creative advantages of signing a WGA contract.

There is already far too much writing done in our business by men and women without WGA benefits. We cannot let writers of sitcoms and comedy-variety programming join their ranks, as we also work to reduce the amount of animation, reality, nonfiction, and other so-called “non-scripted” writing not covered by a WGA contract.

Thanks for your attention and your continued support.

Best,

Patric M. Verrone
President, WGAW

Michael Winship
President, WGAE

I'm happy to see that Guggenheim is on the list of showrunners urging Tyler Perry to do the right thing.

Tyler Perry: Black Eye For Obama?

Barack Obama was set to appear at the gala event marking the opening of Tyler Perry's new studios in Atlanta. Perry's illegal firing of four writers to avoid becoming a union shop turned Obama into a no-show.

Tyler Perry is a huge Obama supporter. So much so, in fact, that he plans to write and direct a movie about the presidential candidate that focuses on how Barack and Michelle's relationship helped him rise to his current level of success. When did he come up with the idea? While at dinner with Barack, Michelle and Oprah, of course.

Read the whole story at Deadline Hollywood.

Tyler Perry: Union Busting Fallout

People are certainly trying to spread the word about Tyler Perry being a greedy hypocrite and union buster.

On IMDB, the issue is being discussed, with someone eventually bringing up the race issue to say that black people in Hollywood are their own worst enemy.

Over at Atlanta Film Fest 365, they've been on the issue for over a week. They've linked to coverage on NY Times, LA Times & The Hollywood Reporter.


And it is all over the net:

LALate.com
SandraRose.com

Of course, Nikki Finke is still on it.

Hope to see bigger coverage.

Tyler Perry: Hypocrite & Union Buster

Found over on Deadline Hollywood:

This season, scripted television programming will consist of about 150 shows employing 1,200 writers.

Of that universe, 149 shows and 1,193 writers will produce shows covered by the Writers Guild’s Minimum Basic Agreement. The MBA guarantees minimum compensation, residuals, health coverage, and pension in addition to other benefits.

The big exception? Tyler Perry's House of Payne and the seven writers who, collectively, played a key role in producing over 100 episodes of one of television's most successful sitcoms.

Right now, these seven writers are in a struggle with you, the producer of House of Payne, to extend Guild coverage to the show. This past Monday, after months of negotiations with the Guild, four of the writers were abruptly and illegally fired because of their efforts to secure the same minimums and benefits as their peers.

We all know that producing television is a tough and uncertain business. But some things are simply not acceptable.

We have a simple ask – reinstate the writers and make a fair deal with WGA.

Respectfully,
Rich Appel, The Cleveland Show
Lee Aronsohn, Two & a Half Men, The Big Bang Theory
Rene Balcer, Law & Order, Law & Order: Criminal Intent
Alan Ball, True Blood
Carol Barbee, Swingtown
Carter Bays, How I Met Your Mother
Ed Bernero, Criminal Minds
Jenny Bicks, Men in Trees, Sex and the City
John Bowman, Frank TV, Martin, In Living Color
Shane Brennan, NCIS
Marc Cherry, Desperate Housewives
Alan Cohen, Held Up
Elizabeth Craft, Dollhouse
Bob Daily, Desperate Housewives
Elias Davis, WGAW Secretary Treasurer
Gary Dontzig, Murphy Brown, Suddenly Susan, Becker, Hannah Montana
Sarah Fain, Dollhouse
Kevin Falls, Journeyman
Michele Fazekas, Reaper
Tina Fey, 30 Rock
Larry Gelbart, M*A*S*H
Mike Gibbons, Talk Show with Spike Feresten
David A. Goodman, Family Guy
Glenn Gordon Caron, Medium, Now and Again, Moonlighting
John Gray, Ghost Whisperer
Walon Green, Canterbury’s Law
Marc Guggenheim, Eli Stone
Hart Hanson, Bones
Warren Hutcherson, Everybody Hates Chris, The Bernie Mac Show
Michael Jamin, Glenn Martin
Al Jean, The Simpsons
Mike Kelley, Swingtown
Anne Kenney, Greek
Bill Lawrence, Scrubs, Spin City
Michael Leeson, Bill Engvall Show, The Cosby Show
Steve Levitan, Just Shoot Me
Chuck Lorre, Two and a Half Men, The Big Bang Theory
Bill Martin, 3rd Rock from the Sun, Grounded for Life
Chris McGuire, Mind of Mencia
Carol Mendelsohn, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, CSI: Miami, CSI: NY
Ted Mulkerin, Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson
Peter Murietta, Wizards of Waverly Place
Marti Noxon, Mad Men, Private Practice
John Peaslee, Operating Instructions
Steve Peterman, Hannah Montana
Clyde Phillips, Dexter
Judd Pillot, Operating Instructions
Bill Prady, The Big Bang Theory
Matt Pyken, Knight Rider
Michael Rauch, Love Monkey, Beautiful People, Life is Wild
Andrew Reich, Friends
Shonda Rhimes, Grey’s Anatomy, Private Practice
Shawn Ryan, The Shield, The Unit
David Sacks, Lewis Black's Root of All Evil
Steve Skrovan, ’Til Death
Mike Schiff, 3rd Rock from the Sun, Grounded for Life
Robin Schiff, former WGAW Board Member
Gary Scott Thompson, Knight Rider, Las Vegas
Chris Sheridan, Family Guy
Amy Sherman-Palladino, Gilmore Girls
David Simkins, Warehouse 13, The Dresden Files, The Book of Daniel
Robert Singer, Supernatural
Dan Sterling, The Sarah Silverman Program
Matt Tarses, Worst Week
Alison Taylor, Just Jordan
Betsy Thomas, My Boys
Eric Tuchman, Kyle XY
Marc Warren, Cory in the House
Michael Warren, Happy Days, Family Matters, Hanging with Mr. Cooper
Matthew Weiner, Mad Men
Dan Wilcox, M*A*S*H, Newhart, Growing Pains, WGAW Board Member
Larry Wilmore, former WGAW Board Member, The Bernie Mac Show

Wow. He enjoys the benefits of Directors Guild of America membership, but fires writers for trying to organize under the WGA?

Can't trust union members who are, also, producers. Seems they don't stay true to their union brothers and sisters.

I Know, I Know...But Still...

The way they teased the next issue was funny, though. Can't wait to see if anyone gets their panties all in a bunch over that. ;)

See? He's Still Working!

Guggenheim works with Hugh Jackman on the new Virgin Comics project, Nowhere Man.

So there's evidence that I didn't ruin his career. ;)

Oh yeah...and I'm pretty sure Jackman is participating in something like this with an eye towards getting his idea into TV or film, not because he has some burning love for comics. Maybe a respect for comics, since they helped launch his career into the stratosphere, but not a burning love/need to create comics.

Can't Be Mad At Guggenheim

Something that gets lost in my vociferously defending my action of reporting Guggenheim is that I don't think he is a terrible guy. I strongly disagree with his stance on strike-time behavior, but I think he is a good guy who, until just before the end, was engaging me in a great discussion/debate. I didn't like being dismissed with the "you're not in my union" deal and stand by the contention that it is the sign of failure in a debate. But that don't make Guggenheim a bad person. I think everyone's tried to finagle a way out of a debate without admitting that they have no answer or no way out of a corner they've painted themselves into.

Before having my Newsarama account closed, I had sent Mr. Guggenheim a PM saying that, if I had it to do all over again, I don't know if I still would have reported him. I felt pretty confident, actually, that I wouldn't have if a certain writer didn't show up to carry over frustrations he has with me on other issues. I don't know if Mr. Guggenheim received the message before my account closed or if the message would still be in his box if my account closed.

What I do know is, despite it all, he came back to the thread with a pretty funny post:

Originally Posted by ERoy

Learning about this thread certainly makes me want to check out Eli Stone, since I really didn't know anything about it before. So, at least for me, the thread did what it was supposed to do.

Mission accomplished! Thanks, Kevin! The check is in the mail, buddy.

Now, that can be with full "I can't be bothered to hold a grudge" humor or that can be more of a "how do you like dem apples" crack. Either way, I don't care who you are...that's funny.

Maybe I have to give that Eli Stone show a shot, after all...

Mark Waid Is All Class

Further evidence that people need to bring their problems with me TO ME, instead of messing up other sites with their ignorance and frustration.

I simply said the following in a Blog@Newsarama listing many creators remembering Steve Gerber on his passing:

I know more of the manner in which Steve Gerber carried himself during his failing health than I do about him as a creator. In that time, I saw greatness.

Comment by Kevin Huxford — February 12, 2008 @ 4:45 pm

Mark Waid followed up shortly after with the following:

Jim Shooter’s work taught me how to write, but Steve Gerber is the one and only person who made me WANT to be a writer. The inventiveness and courage of his work was jaw-dropping to me when I was a teenager and still holds up for me to this day. Without Steve, literally, I wouldn’t be in comics.

And it moves me deeply to read so many similar tributes to the man and his work from so many who cared equally. Even Kevin Huxford, who’s no doubt pissed that Steve passed before Kevin could rat him out to the WGA for some perceived sin.

Comment by Mark Waid — February 12, 2008 @ 9:48 pm

Mark Waid: It speaks to your (lack of) class that you'd sully a place of remembering the dead with taking a lowly cheap shot at me. You want to take shots at me? You can certainly find a better place than the comments section regarding the death of someone you hold in high regard. I imagine that you'd have started an argument or taken a swing at me had we actually been at a wake at the same time?

Kevin Huxford Is A Big Fat Snitch

I've been reading responses to my reporting Marc Guggenheim to the WGA and publicizing Dan Slott's private e-mails asking me to call him so he could tell me how I got my review of his Brand New Day work so wrong. I've had a fair share of supporters, but I've clearly had more detractors.

They're bringing their frustration (some eloquent, some idiotic, some ignorant) to Newsarama, Shotgun Reviews, YouTube, and even here.

Being that I'd at least like for my actions to not be a headache for Matt Brady or Troy Brownfield, I'd like to create a place for you to bash me to your heart's content where it really should be: DIRECTLY SAID TO ME, WHERE I'M AVAILABLE TO BE BASHED AND RESPOND, WITHOUT IT IMPACTING INNOCENTS.

You can come with the ridiculous commentary, like Kirk Warren who compared my reporting Marc Guggenheim to a student accusing a college professor of rape (and other extreme and inappropriate examples), as it could ruin their career, regardless of the veracity of the accusation.

Problem is: I reported Marg Guggenheim's public support for Joe Quesada's appearance on The Colbert Show and declaration that it is OK to watch a strike show as long as you don't DVR it or have a Nielsen box. There is no question as to whether he did it or not. There was only question whether it was wrong of him, as a WGA member, to publicly state such an opinion. He claimed that it wasn't and that my stance on the whole issue was merely because I wasn't aware of all the nuances of the issue. I merely directed the issue to people who WOULD be aware of the nuances: WGA leadership.

Call me a snitch. That's fine. Accuse me of trying to hurt someone's career maliciously? Suggest I'm libeling or slandering someone? You're way off on the facts. I never made anything up. At one point, I misinterpreted Marc's statement as being that he went so far as to give Joe the thumbs up BEFORE his Colbert appearance. I acknowledged that mistake and it was NOT part of anything stated to the WGA.

I'll be your snitch. In societies with a rule of law, there is a fine line between public service and snitching. Same goes for organizations, especially those centered around the ability of all to come together in unity so that they may collectively bargain as one. I'm pretty sure most of you calling me a snitch here have never had to worry about some weak link in your group's chain fucking things up for you.

It happens in union and non-union work. I've had co-workers nearly lose a contract I was working on, because they didn't care what they said in the presence of the client. Whether publicly proclaiming that he'd be able to do his job better if he actually knew what he was doing and got some training to unprofessionally insulting another contractor present on a conference call, my ability to be gainfully employed was out of my hands to some extent. The same can be said for a WGA member (and, let's not forget, PRODUCER with a possible conflict of interests) who tells the public that it is OK for you to keep watching struck shows or become a part of struck shows.

Let's not forget that Guggenheim and I were having a fairly productive discussion until another party showed up. I had actually missed Guggenheim dismissing my opinion out of hand at the end due to my not being in a Hollywood union until Slott had to chime in during his chasing me around (more on that in a separate blog).

After my post pointing out Slott's questionable actions of late (like e-mailing me repeatedly to have a phone conversation about my "wrong" review of his work), I was bowing out. There was nothing to be gained. I had received e-mails from friends that confirmed the wisdom of my decision to bow out, but they were after the fact.

Then, it would appear, someone decided to bring the attention of others into the mix. They did this quietly, while scurrying through the shadows. How could they publicly admit to doing so when they'd lose any mistaken shred of moral superiority on the issue? Forget that the act was pretty much transparent, despite their lack of owning up to it. Forget that an astute observer can pretty much tell who went crying to daddy when they felt I crossed the line. They didn't go to an organization I was a part of, either.

I'm not saying it was Guggenheim. I know it wasn't me. Hmmmmm.

I found it hilarious (and tacky) that the next interview that ran with Guggenheim at the 'Rama was done via a phone call while he was on the picket line. Screamed of damage control to me, but then the interview might have already been conducted before his error in judgment where he supported Quesada's appearance on The Colbert Show. With a week between his gaffe and his picket line interview, pardon me for being suspicious.