On Tuesday, the first day of the strike by the members of the Writers Guild of America (WGA), a tweet posted by writer Emily St. John Mandel went viral. It featured a photograph of a picket sign bearing a tongue-in-cheek threat: “Pay Your Writers or we’ll spoil SUCCESSION.”
The words were presumably written by a striking television or film writer, like myself, who has been left to apply their creative talent to sign-length slogans. The specific threat was (probably?) fake, but the overall point holds: Writers are central to storytelling in entertainment, and when you treat us unfairly, there will be consequences.
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