As many of you already know, on the morning of November 5, some of Hollywood’s top writers began picketing outside the Today Show. This marked the beginning of strikes set in motion by the fact that many writers feel they’re not receiving proper compensation from the sales of recent DVDs and Internet downloads. The strike is the first of its kind since 1988 when the industry lost $500 million over a 22 week period.

Picketing mantras include “you get paid, we get paid” and “No contracts, no shows!” Demands at this time are not disclosed, but are said to be the same demands expressed this past summer that did not lead to any resolution.

Though viewers may be fearing the worst, alas, there does seem to be hope for our favorite shows. According to all sources, the first shows hit hard will be nightly talk shows, which require fresh material as most of the content is contingent on current events. So it is safe to say that Letterman, Leno, and O’Brien may have quite a dry spell ahead of them.

Next The Daily Show is likely to be hit for the same reason. Still the most popular TV shows, like NBC’s Heroes, ABC’s Grey’s Anatomy and many others look to be in the clear until January. Then there are of course shows like ABC’s Lost, which have yet to air their new episodes. Lost, in particular, is likely to do well in light of the show’s immense popularity. In addition, movie studios claim to have enough scripts to last until the end of the year, though, as of press time, it is only speculative as to how long the strike will last.

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Recently, Helium.com asked readers if media-driven entertainment is too dominant in modern society. Here is my response:

What do you think a when you think of the phrase “modern society?” It could be that you think of electricity, cars, telephones, video games, computers and e-mail. You might think of the latest and greatest or most up to date gadgets, device, software, and so forth.

Merriam-Webster defines the word “modern” as:

1 a: of, relating to, or characteristic of the present or the immediate past : contemporary b: of, relating to, or characteristic of a period extending from a relevant remote past to the present time
2: involving recent techniques, methods, or ideas : up-to-date
3 capitalized : of, relating to, or having the characteristics of the present or most recent period of development of a language.

So now that we have defined the term, let’s elaborate shall we?

How does this affect our entertainment choices? In recent times, let us say the last 30 years, those of us in the U.S. have seen great transitions. In 1977, for example, we saw devices like 8-track music players, Coleco Vision and Atari video game systems, block lettering on network television and the earliest incarnations of HBO that likely only was viewed by a select group of customers. After all, Americans had only recently gotten used to color television, and now had the added attraction of cable to entice them. Only the dream of George Lucas’s Star Wars was able to prophesize what was yet to come.

By 1981, MTV hit the airwaves with a bunch of crazy haired Brits and synthesized music and we called it modern and ‘new wave’. By 1983, we were mesmerized by Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” video, and we called it amazing. By 1984, we were introduced to the new Apple computer via a Super Bowl commercial in which we were told that we would find out why 1984 would not be like George Orwell’s version of 1984.

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“Are you a racist?” It is a question that most of us find uncomfortable at best. And yet, there are those times in the human culture that warrant this question such as this one from Bill O’Reilly’s September 19 radio show:

“You know, I was up in Harlem a few weeks ago, and I actually had dinner with Al Sharpton, who is a very, very interesting guy. And he comes on The Factor a lot, and then I treated him to dinner, because he’s made himself available to us, and I felt that I wanted to take him up there. And we went to Sylvia’s, a very famous restaurant in Harlem. I had a great time, and all the people up there are tremendously respectful.“

“They all watch The Factor. You know, when Sharpton and I walked in, it was like a big commotion and everything, but everybody was very nice. And I couldn’t get over the fact that there was no difference between Sylvia’s restaurant and any other restaurant in New York City. I mean, it was exactly the same, even though it’s run by Blacks, primarily Black patronship. It was the same, and that’s really what this society’s all about now here in the U.S.A. There’s no difference.”

“There’s no difference. There may be a cultural entertainment — people may gravitate toward different cultural entertainment, but you go down to Little Italy, and you’re gonna have that. It has nothing to do with the color of anybody’s skin.”

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