Writers Strike Enters Third Week in Divide Over Online Content

Striking writers staged a last rally in central Hollywood Tuesday before contracts talks resume next week between their union and studios and major producers. Some 4,000 people marched down Hollywood Boulevard. The writers were joined by TV and film actors and other union members. The rally comes 16 days into the strike that has been felt across the industry, with daily talk shows canceled and shooting on top-rated dramas postponed due to a lack of scripts.

On Monday, about 500 television and radio writers working for CBS News also voted to strike following their own contract dispute with the network. Here in New York, writers have walked a daily picket line in various locations across the city. Democracy Now! went to Sony Plaza yesterday and spoke to some of the writers on strike.

• Interviews with striking writers.

The Writers Guild of America will meet next Monday with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers for the first time since they went on strike. The two sides have clashed over paying writers for reruns of their work online and for original work written for the Internet. Michael Winship is the President of the Writers Guild of America, East. He joins me in the firehouse studio. Welcome to Democracy Now.

• Michael Winship. President of the Writers Guild of America, East.

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