Stephen King demands to know how the writers’ strike affects another form of scripted television

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The WGA strike continues to halt production on more and more movies and TV shows but horror author Stephen King has questioned why the strike seemingly hasn’t affected news channels.

King himself is currently on strike as a member of the Writers Guild of America. However, that does not appear to be the case for all writers right now. News channels continue to air despite obviously needing writers to produce content and The Boogeyman author has questioned whether they are exempt from the strike in some way.

“I’m on strike as a member of the WGA. My question is whether or not writers for the news channels are exempt. I know that late-night show writers are out, so…?”

Fans of the horror author were not able to provide much in the way of answers to his question. Some joked that the channels were making use of ChatGPT in place of writers, although there’s obviously no evidence that is actually happening.

“It’s amazing what ChatGPT and a can of redbull can do.” – @thisguyaresick

Others wondered whether news writers were a part of the WGA and they aren’t far off the mark.

“Not sure if news writers are members of the WGA. I will have to ask my strike captain!!” – @NeoEdmund1

“Producers aren’t WGA. They do know what sells advertising however.” – @_PiggyPie

The answer to King’s question is that writers for the news are covered by a different union. Those working on news programs may be covered by divisions of CWA, Communications Workers of America. Therefore, they are completely unaffected by the WGA strike, the same goes for reality TV and the like. So shows like Love Island and The Kardashians can technically continue. They aren’t ignoring the strike, they are just unable to join due to their differing unions.

About the author

Jordan Collins

Jordan is a writer at WeGotThisCovered. He’s been on the site for half a year and has been writing for a few years before that.
Jordan has a Masters in Creative Writing and he loves telling that to anyone who will listen.
Aside from that he often spends time getting lost in films, books and games. He particularly enjoys fantasy from The Legend of Zelda to The Lord of the Rings.
His main reason for writing is so he can afford to feed his pet fish called Kevin.