TV Creatives Hungry for Emmy Respect Disrupt, Ruin Image of Twitter

What kind of people use Twitter? Horrible celebrities, political obsessives -- and, it now appears, people who actually care that the Emmys changed their broadcast so that eight of the awards will not be presented live. The affected categories are (deep breath) best drama-series writing, best writing for TV movies or miniseries, best TV movie, best miniseries, best directing for a variety show, best directing for a TV movie/miniseries, and best supporting actor and supporting actress in a TV movie or miniseries (whew! That ought to save twenty minutes). Instead they'll be recorded earlier and highlights will be shown at broadcast, which the Academy calls "time-shifting."

You know how creative types are, especially in the ego department: the Directors' Guild threatens legal action, and the Writers' Guild of America West has gotten many prominent members to sign a petition protesting the move. Cable network people are sure the move targets them. (Actors, oddly enough, have been relatively quiet about it.)

The agitation has reached the web, and today the tag #emmysfail has risen to Trending Topic status with messages like, "I'm offended that the Emmys give live awards to "reality" garbage while they relegate writers to tape."

It's the Emmys, folks. Not even the Oscars, nor the Presidential Medal of Freedom. And it's about whether or not the winners (0.000000001 percent of the membership of each craft community) get to go on live or not.

No wonder the real creative people -- like Trent Reznor and teenagers -- don't like Twitter. It's like a Hollywood party where everyone does nothing but complain.