Congloms Try Dirty Tricks

Deadline Hollywood is amassing a truly appalling list of ways in which the moguls are trying to lie, cheat and smear their way out of the mess that their greed has created.

Here's a quick rundown of my personal faves (reprinted from DHD):

• AMPTP staffers, consultants and members (especially corporate publicity departments) are busily posting comments on WGA-friendly websites and blogs that Hollywood visits regularly and filling them with hate-filled rants against the WGA leadership, the A-list actors, and the companies who've made WGA side deals. The goal is to turn off readers and drive traffic away and in the process spread pro-AMPTP propaganda and make it look as if the strike is breaking apart.
• 
  News Corp. No. 2 Peter Chernin realized the AMPTP was losing the PR war and was most responsible for bringing in Fabiani and Lehane as the AMPTP's public affairs consultants since his company has a close relationship with them. Fabiani and Lehane were paid by News Corp. to orchestrate a 2004 campaign organizing advocacy groups by race and ethnicity to hammer Nielsen Media Research over its plans to modernize how it measures viewing habits.
• 
  Warner Bros Chairman Barry Meyer has handpicked the AMPTP paid mouthpieces who have spread the AMPTP's insults and disinformation about the WGA leadership.
• 
  The other day, an AMPTP consultant tried to start a rumor that a WGA exec was connected to child pornography.
• The AMPTP repeatedly lies that the WGA has "a $30 million PR fund" to spread public information about the strike when the reality is that the WGA's entire communications budget is several hundred thousand dollars.

It's an open secret is that, for these guys, no matter what happens -- even if they get fired for running their corporations into the ground -- they'll still get huge severance packages that make them rich, and in effect reward them for having completely and totally screwed up. (This has become the standard for corporate business, not just in Hollywood. Home Depot and Countrywide Financial Corp are the poster children at the moment, just like Ovitz was in 1996.)

They don't care if they burn the whole town down to win. That much is obvious. And watching their irresponsible and very un-business like behavior while the entertainment industry is in crisis is both infuriating and disheartening. How can we win? people ask.

Here's how we can win, here's what's vital to remember: these guys are managers of publicly held companies.

Wall Street matters. Stockholders matter. And collusion and anti-trust laws matter too.

People are starting to talk about this in print -- questioning moguls who are putting their own personal vendettas and greed above the good of the companies they manage. And as more ad revenue is returned, and more bad press on the moguls' intractability comes out, this conversation is going to get louder and louder. Or as the meon article says about Iger: "Why then does he allow the AMPTP to dictate policy on behalf of Disney�s shareholders, employees, and customers?"

There are politicians paying attention to this, here and in Washington. And as the moguls tank a vital part of California's economy, they will start doing something. They aren't going to have a choice.

The point is this: it doesn't matter that the CEO's don't care. They aren't kings. The shareholders are more powerful, and the truth is, all we are asking for is a fair deal that the companies can easily afford. Politicians are powerful, and the AMPTP doesn't own all of them.

The more evidence piles up in the public eye that we're reasonable and fair, and that they're frankly acting like spoiled children, the sooner this will end with a fair deal for Internet work. IT'S ABOUT THE INTERNET.

As we move forward, the dirty tricks on their side will continue, and as they keep losing ground those tricks will become more shrill and crazed (although how much more crazed you can get than accusing someone of child pornography, I'm not sure.) We have to stay strong, stay focused, and recognize the moguls' behavior for what it is: desperation.