Jay Leno Attacks Writers

After two months, NBC's The Tonight Show with Jay Leno returned to work, crossing the writers' picket line.

Leno reportedly (I watched Letterman) lobbed a few weak one-liners at the media moguls who forced the strike and refused to bargain in good faith with the writers. He even is quoted by the LA Times as saying, "I'm on the side of the writers."

But then he proceeded to blame the writers for the situation. Since the strike began Leno paid the non-writing staff and kept them on the job even though no hows were being made. Kudos.

But last night he turned on the writers, saying, "We had to come back [cross the picket line] because [and here's the real kicker] we have essentially 19 people putting 160 people out of work."

I'm sorry. Who was putting whom out of work? I thought Leno was on the side of striking writers. Why is he blaming them for putting 160 people out of work?

It was the producers and corporate bureaucrats who walked out of the negotiations on December 11. It is the producers who refuse to bargain in good faith and end the strike. It was the bosses who put people out of work.

Leno isn't on the side of the writers. That's the real joke.