WGA STRIKE COVERAGE: I Want Media Names Strikers ‘Person of the Year’

Writers Guild of America Members Top Murdoch; Stephen Colbert Was Last Year’s Winner

By John Eggerton -- Broadcasting & Cable, 12/4/2007 12:45:00 PM

Striking TV writers were named “Person [to use the term loosely] of the Year” in I Want Media's annual online poll.

The writers won in a landslide, garnering 56% of the total in the sixth annual tally, topping News Corp. chairman Rupert Murdoch, a distant second at 13% of the total. Stephen Colbert -- whose topical daily comedy show, Comedy Central’s The Colbert Report, was hit hard by the strike -- was last year's poll winner.

I Want Media pointed out in announcing the results that "One suspects that a number of the striking writers, with lots of spare time on their hands, may have done some voting for themselves."

The writers have been on strike for one month since failing to come to terms with producers on a new contract. The major sticking point is said to be how writers are compensated for use of their work on the multiple platforms media companies are throwing their programming on and at.

The weeklong poll featured "thousands" of votes for one of 10 candidates culled from the media universe by the Web site’s users. Other candidates included Rosie O'Donnell, Don Imus, Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg and Google.

For full coverage of the strike, click here.