Why Hollywood writers are striking

If you’re interested in what the current Writers Guild of America strike is all about, here’s an audio bite that should make it clear (without making your eyes glaze over).

Patric Verrone (pictured), president of the West Coast wing of the WGA, appeared yesterday on the Bill Handel radio show. Handel is the morning man at KFI 640, L.A.’s leading talk station.

I’m streaming a slightly edited 9-minute version on my Vox blog. Click here to listen.

Bill Handel is a joker, and he has some fun with the issue. But Handel also understands the bottom-line fairness of the WGA’s position: If the Hollywood studios make money selling TV shows over the Internet, then the creative community – writers, actors and directors – deserve a small share of it.

As of now, we get zero.

The corporations would rather let this painful strike happen than sit and negotiate a number higher than zero.

You can download the Patric Verrone interview as a podcast via iTunes. Just search the iTunes podcast directory for “Bill Handel” and find the November 9 clip labeled “Writers Strike.”