It's The Year of the Rat

As I mentioned some time ago, when the Writers Guild strike began, I stopped watching my favorite shows to support the strike. For me, this mainly meant The Daily Show, Colbert Report & Real Time with Bill Maher. However, once they came back on (live, more or less) after the first of the year, I wasn't sure what I would do, see The Blank Screen.

Now, I've never belonged to a union, and I must admit that I've had issues with some of the union's positions in the past (I lived in Pittsburgh during the decline and fall of US Steel and other steel mills), but I've always been a strong supporter of unions (workers). I make it a point to avoid stores that are anti-union (read that: Wal-mart) and don't cross picket lines -- especially those with the inflatable rat blocking the way. In fact, Mr. Rat hung around my office for a while last year during the construction of several large office and residential complexes, using non-union labor. I used to beep to him (and the picketers) every morning, giving them the thumbs up. Not that it helped, since unions have become less a force in many industries in the past 20 years. It's sometimes amazing to me that workers are often anti-union, not understanding what value there is in union membership.

I should also acknowledge that my union support has had its own checkered history. Many years ago, I spent several years as a labor lawyer -- on the side of management. This, of course, is a perfect example of why people despise lawyers -- we will do anything we are hired to do, even if it goes against our personal beliefs. On the other hand, this is also why I knew that the large firm life was not for me and was one of the major contributing reasons why I left. Of course, the fact that I was a LIBERAL (feisty) woman residing in a white-shoe, mostly male, Republican firm back in the day meant that it was a matter of when I would leave, not if.

In any event, I read the (hopefully) good news that the WGA strike may be over, Writers' strike could see last chapter:

The now 3-month-old Hollywood writers strike could enter its final chapter Saturday when guild members gather in Los Angeles and New York to consider a proposed contract. If writers respond favorably, the walkout that has devastated the entertainment industry could end as soon as Monday.

Let's hope -- for all our sakes. There is no doubt that the writers have to be hurting after all this time without work. The shows are certainly less than optimal without the excellent writing staff to add the special quality that make these shows stand out. When the shows did return without the writers, there were mixed reviews of their performance, see Comedy Central Hosts Return to TV and Stewart rambles, Colbert rallies! In fact, I think this view was shared by the stars of the shows. They were uncomfortable, to say the least, about returning during the duration of the strike. See Jon Stewart Says WGA Nixed Side Deal. Stewart's initial show reflects that unease. See He's Back.

As for me, I was in a real quandary about whether to watch or not.

I have to confess. Although I held out for a while, I did end up watching my shows. It was my guilty pleasure. Yet, I knew that I was, in some way, hurting the cause. The best slap came from, of all places, a conservative commenter on Salon after The Daily Show & Colbert Report returned, who noted, in Letters:

Still tuning in, are you?

Typical "progressive" fakery. All moral posturing with no commitment.

What a pretty little package.

Forced back to work. That's the phrase liberals are using to justify the actions of Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert. Talk about disingenuous. These guys didn't have to go back to work. Had they refused until a resolution, Viacom would've had to have been very, very careful about challenging them, in no small part because of the massive amount of public support either of them are capable of martialing.

As things played out, they returned to work - and, in doing so, weakened the strike's effect and the efforts of the very people they imply they support.

* * * *

Instead of directing the condemnation where it belongs - and God forbid anyone consider individual responsibity - the common refrain is "Sure, Stewart & Colbert are union members, but but but...

The only but that matters?

"... but, as a viewer, I want my entertainment. And I'll find any number of ways to justify my favorite liberal icons crossing picket lines in defiance of their own union's strike. Avoid watching? Hell no. Why should I have to endure the excruciating hardship of refraining from four hours of television every week until there's a resolution?"

Viewers of The Colbert Report and The Daily Show - millions of 'em - have bitched incessantly about Democratic politicians being unprincipled, spineless, corrupt traitors to liberalism for seven long years. But it's perfectly okay for these same viewers to refrain from exercising solidarity with the striking writers, even if it means becoming scabs themselves. Regardless of the mental gymnastics employed to assuage the conscience that knows better, the viewer - a real Friend of Labor, no doubt - tuning into Stewart and Colbert IS crossing a virtual picket line.

The next time you bitch about what weasels your Democratic representatives are, look in the mirror and be grateful you have a party which reflects its constituency just as capably as the ones conservatives have.

Much as I hate to admit it, he's right (literally and figuratively). Although he incorrectly labeled the watchers "scabs," which is not technically true, since we're not taking jobs from strikers. But we're just as bad. We "crossed the picket line" by watching those shows. We can rationalize it however we want to, but cross that line we did.

I justified it by saying that my one person boycott didn't make a damn bit of difference (which was true). I did refrain from posting any videos or comments about the shows here for the duration, but that was just a way of making myself feel better about crossing the picket line.

The only saving grace was being able to see the Stephen Colbert show with Andrew Young, in which he celebrated his writers -- and unions. He told a moving story about another strike in 1969 at the Charleston Hospital by the black hospital workers union. As the Huffington Post reported, Colbert's Civil Rights MLK Day Writer's Strike-Busting Writerless Show:

It was an amazing television moment. After paying his respects to Monday's debate and busting out a pretty darn good Tom Cruise imitation, Colbert made a segue which, in retrospect, was brilliant: Moving from Clinton and Obama's bickering over who loved Reagan more to the evidence provided by Tom Brokaw's book, Boom! Voices of the Sixties, which, in addition to quoting Hillary Clinton discussing how Ronald Reagan finessed the balance of his role "beautifully" on page 404, contains an early segment devoted to the Reverend Andrew Young, the "last surviving member of Martin Luther King's inner circle at the Southern Christian Leadership Council," and lifelong, steadfast civil rights activist. Colbert got to that — eventually — after first introducing a documentary-style segment (in the style of Brokaw's "1968" documentary, complete with soundtrack) about the Charleston Hospital workers union strike of 1969, which was settled by the young, er, Young, who negotiated with a vice president of the associated Medical University of South Carolina — "the only administrator willing to meet with Young was the newly-appointed vice-president of the medical college, who had taken up the position just days before the strike was called." The two worked behind the scenes to finally end the strike — and on the hundredth day, they came to an agreement, awarding raises to the striking workers.

That administrator? James Colbert — Stephen's father.

Colbert doesn't say so in the episode, but his personal history is a matter of public record, and the story of his father is a sad one: In 1974, when Colbert was ten years old, his father and two of his brothers were killed in a plane crash. As if this wasn't moving enough, Colbert then brings out (or, runs triumphantly over to, as is his wont) Andrew Young himself, his guest on the program. It is pretty poignant even if you don't know the full story, hearing Young explain to Stephen how he worked with his father. More than that, Young tells Stephen — pretty seriously, it seems — that he is his "destiny" and that Stephen has the power to end the writer's strike. . . . Young said the current striking writers weren't a whole lot different than the striking hospital workers in 1969, fighting to be paid the same wages as their white counterparts — in both cases, said Young, it was about a small amount, fair money for fair work, but more than that it was about respect. He called on Stephen to start the behind-the-scenes work to start settling the strike...just like his father.

Watch the video. It's the finale from the show with Andrew Young's visit. A musical tribute by Stephen, Andrew Young, Malcolm Gladwell, the Harlem Gospel Choir -- and Colbert's writers. For the rest of the show, including the Young interview, watch the clips at The Huffington Post. It's one of the best Colbert shows, ever.

And of course, the real question is whether Stephen got involved in the negotiations with the writers guild -- behind the scenes? Let's hope he did, to fulfill his part of his destiny with Andrew Young -- and to end this strike.