Guild Member Pickets CBS Baltimore Affiliate

Article reprinted from weblogs.baltimoresun.com/entertainment/critics/blog/2007/11/wjz_protest.html

Author and screenwriter Ellis Avrum Cohen staged a one-man protest on TV Hill this morning as part of the Writers Guild of America Strike.

"I'm a team of one," said Cohen, a 30-year member of the guild.
"I can only do so much. This is like David and Goliath, but I believe I can do it."

Cohen is the first union member to picket at a network affiliate in the country as part of this strike. He plans to picket WBAL Thursday morning and WMAR Dec. 4.

Most WJZ employees on their way into the office slowed their cars to read Cohen's signs. Some waved.

"That's union people -- when they stop and read it," he said.
Cohen penned the 1995 book Dangerous Evidence and later adapted it for film. He has been living in the area for the past several years working on a new book about the connection between the founders of the FBI and CIA and Sept. 11, 2001.

"I"m picketing the company -- CBS -- that fed me for 10 years," he said. "Supposedly you don't bite the hand that feeds you. I'm nibbling a little bit."

Reporter who covered this story can be reached at sam.sessa@baltsun.com