Democratic presidential debate canceled over strike
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A televised debate set for next month among the Democratic presidential candidates will be canceled to avoid a potential conflict with striking Hollywood screenwriters, organizers said on Wednesday.
The decision by the Democratic National Committee (DNC) came after several candidates said they would not cross picket lines of the Writers Guild of America, which has been on strike against major film and television studios since November 5.
Eight Democrats running for the White House originally had agreed to take part in a debate on December 10 at the CBS Television City studio in Los Angeles, where striking writers have been picketing.
The cancellation comes just over a month before Iowa on January 3 holds the first of the state-by-state contests to determine which Republican and Democrat will face off in the November 4, 2008, election.
CBS Corp. is one of several major media companies being struck by the WGA in the most serious labor confrontation to hit Hollywood in nearly 20 years.
The two sides met again on Thursday for the third bargaining session since the walkout in a dispute that hinges on how much writers should be paid for work that gets distributed over the Internet.
In a separate labor clash, CBS News writers, producers and editors represented by the Writers Guild of America East recently approved a strike against the network through an authorization vote, though no work stoppage has been declared.
"Due to uncertainty created by the ongoing labor dispute between CBS and the Writers Guild of America, the DNC has canceled the December 10th debate in Los Angeles," the party said in a statement. "There are no plans to reschedule."
A source close to the situation at CBS News said the network had asked the Writers Guild to call off any picketing that might be held outside CBS studios on December 10 "for the public good," but received no response from the union.
The DNC-sponsored event is the latest of several presidential debates canceled in recent weeks, most of them because not enough candidates were willing to participate.
There was no immediate comment from the Writers Guild.
(Editing by Dan Whitcomb and Stuart Grudgings)
