Like I said in the very first post I made in this blog, I know absolutely no one of any importance. I am just a viewer with remote in hand.
Re: the whole Carolyn Hinsey scandal: I will try to refrain from commenting about Carolyn on any personal level here. First of all, I didn’t know her. Secondly, I think people expressing their opinions of her is being well taken care of at a few other sites.
But I will make a minor observation or two.
One, I think the intense backlash and negativity coursing through some of those responses in the Jossip thread? Is not just about Hinsey, or anything she or Lynn Leahey or anyone else did. I think it’s also being fueled by general anger and frustration at what’s happening with the industry right now. Everyone is fighting tooth and nail to survive. And more importantly, people – fans, actors, writers – are feeling like they are NOT being heard and are NOT being taken seriously.
Tom Casiello rocks my socks off. He always seems to look at the glass as being half full, and even when he has bad news to deliver, he does so in the most direct, painless way possible. He talked about this kerfuffle in his blog today.
I mention this as a segue to point number two: Things are getting uglier and uglier. I agree with Tom that industry people are more defensive and combative, for probably the same reason as above – everyone is holding onto the lifeboat for dear life, and would push anyone in their path under the water.
I think most of the soap journalists I’ve ever read discussed ideas I completely agreed with and some that I disagreed with or rolled my eyes on. I contribute to the Marlena site, and I have great respect for her work, but I don’t always agree 100% with everything she says. THAT isn’t the point, though. Any good editorial should be thoughtful, thought-provoking, and filled with ideas that, even if you disagree, may shape your own outlook.
But it has only been in 2008 that I’ve seen things get very ugly in print. (God knows, the Internet is an ugly place; anywhere you can be anonymous always is.) [Redacted content]
I’m beginning to think we are at the tipping point, where the whole industry is about to implode. And it’s why I wanted to start a blog. I’m not Santa Claus, or Jesus, and I don’t have all the answers or solutions. But I wanted a space where I could talk about my small, crazy, possibly valuable ideas – a space that would never be tainted by a drive for page views or circulation levels.
It’s the quiet courage of speaking out about things you believe in, even when your voice is the only one (or one of a small chorus). That’s why I love it when Tom says, “Damn the man – save the empire.”
A | THOUSAND | OTHER | WORLDS 
I agree, Patrick. I’m getting a real sense, between the Higley Mess at Days and Hinsey’s firing and the subsequent Truth and Reconcilliation (and Vitriol) thread at Jossip, that we are on the cusp of either a major turning point, or a point of no return, for American soap opera. The saving grace right now is the explosion, post-strike, of new voices on the internet, including your own. Here are people who care about soaps as an institution, who respect the traditions and want desperately to save the medium. If the Execs at both the nets and SourceInterlink were smart, they would be tapping this resource to save both the soaps and the soap press. Instead, Hinsey will probably end up Head Writing Days and Higley and McTavish will split editing the soap mags. Because that’s how it works in daytime musical chairs.