Ugh. Stupid management, always screwing everything up, and screwing everyone over. In fact, this whole mess is supported by the terrorists. Here's how I reached that conclusion.
Reality TV shows (which, by definition, have no writers) take no intellect to create, and no intellect to watch. As I learned when I was a pro wrestling fan, if one does not use his human intellect in his free time, he will not be able to use it when it really counts, such as at the voting booth, or at his job. This means that, as judged by their actions, Americans are indeed stupider, and it thus contributes to a world opinion of Americans as idiots. And since the terrorists want to run America over and destroy her, they certainly don't want America having allies, and so you can say they gain power from any increase in the negative perception of Americans. Therefore, al-Qaeda wants more reality shows on TV, rather than relatively intellectual (yet still entertaining) fare such as The Daily Show with Jon Stewart or The Colbert Report, which, as you all know, look at social issues from a humorous perspective, and get people interested in what's going on in the news. So they support management in not meeting the writers' demands, since they see that, once the writers have a powerful force behind them, management will give in to the writers' demands for proper credit and payment for their works being shown online. The writers, of course, actually have an artistic interest in what they are fighting for, rather than simply a monetary interest like those idiots in management have, so they will not back down. Osama bin Laden is probably sitting in his cave right now, laughing at how his most diabolical plan since 9-11 is coming together...
BTW, Family Guy, an equally evil terrorist plot (for the same reasons), and WWE programming, which is stupefying the trailer parks for its own gain (but not as part of an al-Qaeda plot) both have their own writing teams which are non-union, so they continue to come out with new episodes, while great comedic gems like South Park, with social messages, are affected by the strike. The terrorists know exactly where to hit.
Though CNN and other 24-hour news networks remain up, they are only interesting to people who already have an interest in world or national news, and so, though their viewership will not be hit, there will be no increase in viewers coming from less-real but more-comedic "news" programs like The Colbert Report.
So to any of you who may read this, please support the writers in their hour of need, and show that, at least to you, are battles against al-Qaeda in Afghanistan are not just a silly bumper sticker. Do your part in the War on Terror. I think the actual post by Tom has the details on how you can do this.