New, Increased Moderation Of Comments At United Hosting

UPDATE - Comments are up and the debate appears a little less one-sided.  I've been in contact with one of the people that run United Hollywood and have been assured that they are working to keep the comment moderation fair.  They admit that mistakes happen, but they seem genuine when they say they are working to minimize that.

It would obviously be great if there was no moderation, but I believe them when they say that they receive a ton of truly nasty comments as well as pure spam.

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For everyone reading with fear all the negative comments at United Hollywood about this deal, know that you are only reading one side of the story.

Despite having a cordial and respectful posting relationship with United Hosting in the past, I am disappointed to report that my last two comments have not been posted to their corresponding stories.

Neither of my posts were inflammatory nor irrational.  Writers may or may not agree with the comments, but dissent has always been tolerated at United Hollywood.

John Aboud has even posted one of my suggestions on the front page there.  I have always been appreciative of their open-mindedness and, for the most part, their moderate (though obviously WGA-leaning) stance.  

I have commented repeatedly that I would stop posting if I was asked to. 

I was never asked.  I was deleted.

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For the record, my most recent comment actually was posted, but was deleted within 30 minutes.  The comment before that does not appear to have ever been posted.

The comments in question can be seen on this blog, under "If This Deal Was On The Table In October..." and "DGA Has Reached A Deal!"

Regular Divided Hollywood commenter TranspoBill also reports that his last 6 comments have not been posted.

United Hollywood's Post A Comment instructions still read "Rational debate and discussion from any perspective is welcome, and will never be deleted. "

DGA Has Reached A Deal!

The DGA has announced that is has struck a new deal with the AMPTP which includes doubling the DVD residual for all Internet Downloads (such as iTunes), and a new residual for Internet Streaming (such as NBC.com).

While the internet streaming residual is likely lower than what WGA members were hoping for (2 payments of $600 -- first after 17 days, and again after 26 weeks), it is important, I think, to put this into perspective.  This deal would give WGA jurisdiction over the internet, which has to be the number one concern at this stage.  It also gives the Guild payments based on Distributor's Gross, which was key.

The most important thing to remember is that WGA could sign this deal now, and revisit the actual dollar amounts in three years.  Hell, they could even strike again! (Note to WGA -- just because the previous strike was 20 years ago doesn't mean you HAVE to wait for 7 more contracts before using the Strike Threat Leverage again).

My initial reaction (which I'm sure is no surprise to anyone) is that this deal appears to be a good one.  It is lower than what the Writers hoped for, I'm sure.

The question is, are they ready to stay out for another 6 months in order to get an extra $1200 or so per episode from the Studios?

I hope not.

IF there were a DGA Deal now, what would it mean?

There's yet another rumor that the DGA deal is done. Especially considering what happened earlier in the week, I would take this with an even bigger grain of salt than usual (is UnitedHollywood the new DeadlineHollwoodDaily?).  

I personally heard rumblings about this yesterday, but chose not to post it because, well, who knows anything for sure (besides those actually in the room -- and I'm not in the room!)...  

 

As a general note, I'd find it almost impossible to believe that the DGA would sign a deal -- after only a week -- that wasn't good enough for WGA.  

But who knows?  

If there really is a DGA deal, then we are at a major tipping point in the strike. Either the WGA will sign a similar deal within the next week or two, or this will go through the end of Summer.  

There's really no middle ground that I can see.

Random Selection Continues, Approval Falls

A few quick items in todays news:

1) Rumor of a DGA settlement seems to be just that - a rumor.

2) Grammys are now the latest Awards Show to get denied an individual deal.  NAACP Image Awards, well those are just fine.  This brings the current tally to:

SAG and NAACP -- the Writers like you.  They really, really like you.

Oscars, Golden Globes, Grammys -- why can't you be more like your siblings SAG and NAACP?

3) ABC 7 / Survey USA Poll asked people who they favor in the Writers Strike.  

In November, the results were:

Writers: 69%

Studios: 8%

Neither: 23%

This week, the results were:

Writers: 57%

Studios: 8%

Neither: 35%

That's a twelve point drop in support for the Writers in two months.  No one's dumb enough to throw support behind the Studios, who have been acting completely irresponsibly.  But people are getting hip to the fact that there's plenty of blame to go around for this disaster.

DGA Deal?

United Hollywood is posting a rumor, which is apparently spreading like wildfire, that the DGA has reached an agreement with the AMPTP.

The deal, which is expected to be announced tomorrow (Tuesday), would seem (to me at least) to signal that the Directors have obtained a contract which would likely be agreeable to the Writers, assuming of course that the rumor is true.

As I have posted before, I have an extremely well-placed source who assures me that the DGA Negotiating Committee is acutely aware of what the Writers need to see in a contract that they could sign.  This same source predicted that the DGA deal would be done extremely quickly (though he thought it would be longer than this).

One would have to believe that the DGA would not settle so quickly if they were not able to satisfy the Writers' needs as well.

Further evidence that the deal, if real, is likely agreeable to the Writers is that several Studios(Warners, CBS, Universal, Fox) cut Writers' deal today.  The all directly cited the Writers' Strike as the direct reason for the cuts.

Fingers crossed!

UPDATE 11:23PM Monday - There hasn't been much else reported on this in the blogosphere or traditional press.  It's possible the rumor was started by the axe falling simultaneously at four studios, as opposed to it being an existing story which was fueled by the layoffs.

As with any and all rumors in this Strike, keep up hope; but don't fall prey to false expectations.  Let's see what happens tomorrow.

Pardon Me While I Rant...

I gotta say, I am super frustrated with the comments on United Hollywood and the direction that it is going.  For the past several weeks, the quantity and quality of comments has plummeted.  I originally wrote this off to the holidays, but the brain freeze continues.

First, the moderation of comments has really turned discussion into a series of time-separated opinions.  That is to say, the discussion is gone.

Second, and more importantly, the voices that remain just seem like total drank-the-kool-aid types.  There's seemingly no rational thought over there.  It's hard-line party-line the whole way.

I'm not saying that because people disagree with me that they're automatically wrong.  But no one is even open to the idea that there might be other ideas out there.

Any idea that might possibly have benefits for the AMPTP is automatically dismissed -- no matter how much benefit is might ALSO HAVE for the WGA.

These folks are in serious "cut off your nose to spite your face" mode.

The list of mistakes that have been made by the WGA leadership in this Strike is profound.  Any attempt to prevent future mistakes is met with a lemming-like loyalty to the Guild that would be laughable if it weren't so disturbing.

I am more and more convinced that the only hope we have is that the DGA get a good enough deal, and soon.  I mean, we knew this going into 2008, but it is more apparent than ever.  If WGA doesn't sign whatever deal DGA gets, this Strike is going to go through August or September.

I know that the commenters on UH are not the negotiating committee of the WGA.  But they used to be better than the Neg-Com.  If they still are, we're all screwed.