David Kanter | Defying The Daily Show

"We would like to return to work with our writers. If we cannot, we would like to express our ambivalence, but without our writers we are unable to express something as nuanced as ambivalence."

With characteristic wit, Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert announced their intentions to resume their respective Comedy Central shows last week without their striking writers. To many viewers across the country, especially the college-student demographic on which Stewart and Colbert rely, this decision came as a relief. Stewart and Colbert epitomize true humor in an otherwise bland television lineup.

But as difficult as it may prove - especially since I have recently been enjoying Colbert's I am America (And So Can You!), Winner of "The Stephen T. Colbert Award for The Literary Excellence"- I pledge not to watch either program until the Writers Guild strike is over. And I urge the rest of the student body at Penn to follow suit.

For starters, both anchors are dues-paying members of the Writers Guild of America. Stewart was even instrumental in securing Guild membership for his writers earlier this year. Though I don't profess myself to be an expert on labor organization, I'm inclined to think that their return doesn't square with accepted union behavior. Their behavior is even more reprehensible considering that they are perhaps the most visible members of the Writers Guild, able to impact public opinion substantially. Talk about undermining a labor movement.

Stewart, I read, self-deprecatingly ridiculed his own decision to return, and Colbert turned the whole episode into a satire on the union-breaking inclinations of the conservative right. Perhaps their return to TV did more good than I anticipated.

Yet I highlight their return, rather than the return of other late-night personalities, because of the political backdrops of their respective shows.

For me, Stewart and Colbert provide a regular outlet to ridicule the establishment. The anchors have lampooned absurdities surrounding the Iraq War, Hurricane Katrina and a litany of other newsworthy events. Finally, we had television programs willing to address the hypocrisy and corruption so prevalent in American society.

I talked to some Penn students who were sympathetic to the union but weren't willing to give up their programs. College freshman Jelani Bektemba, a regular viewer of Colbert and Stewart, said he "would still watch the shows even though I don't think it's right that they've returned [while] they're part of the Guild."

But as a supporter of a worker's right to organize and bargain collectively, I find myself especially disillusioned with the anchors' behavior. How can workers bargain when their own members betray them?

Furthermore, I'm disheartened with the public's unwillingness to seriously consider the magnitude of this betrayal. I've heard numerous times throughout the last few weeks that Stewart, Colbert and other late-night acts would be returning. But I couldn't find a single news report that highlighted the ramifications of their decision for organized labor. The Writers Guild of America itself only released a perfunctory statement, merely chastising Comedy Central for "forcing" Stewart and Colbert to resume their shows. The Guild failed to criticize Stewart and Colbert individually.

Despite the lack of public outcry, I'm still disappointed. Not because I'm desperate for writers to earn royalties from the sale of DVDs, but because the Writers Guild strike serves as a symbol of something far more important than itself. The strike reaffirms that American workers in the twenty-first century have the ability to collectively bargain to improve their livelihoods.

Collective action is exceedingly rare today. Only about 11 percent of American workers are union members, compared to around 35 percent in the 1950s. As numerous scholars have illustrated, notably Paul Krugman, the decline in union membership can be directly linked to the inequality so prevalent in modern America.

The assault on labor unions is rampant even hear at Penn. AlliedBarton still refuses to allow Penn security guards to unionize.

I know that nothing earth-shattering is going to happen if a couple of Penn students stop watching The Daily Show. But at the very least, it'll show that some of us acknowledge the importance of unionization for America's workers.

David Kanter is a College freshman from East Falmouth, Mass. His e-mail is kanter@dailypennsylvanian.com. David Versus Goliath appears on Wednesdays.

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