Word: unionizers
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Letterman and Jay Leno to the twin terrors of Comedy Central, Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert - have gone into reruns since the strike began on Nov. 5. But the ethical dilemma confronting the hosts is a keen one. As members of the Writers Guild themselves, do they support their union and refuse to do their shows until the strike is settled? Or go back on the air without their writers - and thus avoid having to lay off dozens of staff members who depend on them for a weekly paycheck and benefits...
...these hosts, deciding whether to go back on the air involves a delicate balance of public image and private ego. Leno, for instance, has been the most vocal supporter of the union - even bringing doughnuts to the picketers on the first day of the strike - and would seem the least likely to reverse course and go back on the air. Yet Leno also seems more closely tied to his scripted material and might be less able to smoothly transition into an unscripted show than hosts who are more natural ad-libbers, like Letterman and O'Brien...
Then there's the crucial question of whether a host, as a Writers Guild member, would even be allowed to write material for himself on his own show. A Writers Guild spokesman told TIME that the hosts (who are also members of AFTRA, the union representing performers) are free to perform on their shows, but not to write material for themselves. Of course, the question of whether a wisecrack that Conan or Dave thinks up in advance should be regarded as written material or an ad-lib could be the subject of unending philosophical debate...
...resignation of Franz Müntefering, Germany's cigarillo-smoking Vice Chancellor, came with characteristic abruptness. Even his colleagues in the Social Democratic Party, or SPD, were surprised by the single line announcement released by the former union leader's office. Müntefering, 67, stressed that he was stepping down from Germany's second most powerful position for personal reasons, notably a "new, dramatic situation" regarding the health of his wife, who has cancer. His departure engendered great sympathy, of course - but also plenty of questions, for it comes after months of speculation about whether he would stay...
...ntefering was a key figure of compromise in Germany's ruling partnership between Merkel's center right Christian Democratic Union and the SPD, the two "volksparteien" that have ruled Germany in coalition since 2005. He may be best known outside Germany for his disparaging remarks in 2005 comparing hedge funds to "locusts" that descend on a country and strip it bare (a comment of which he remained proud, keeping a statue of the insect on his desk). But Müntefering was in fact a more centrist figure than many of his party colleagues. Newspapers referred...