Variety led off the afternoon with a story about staffers for The Tonight Show having worked their last day for NBC, and for some reason or another, Matt Drudge turned this from these guys being laid-off by NBC to them being fired by Lay Leno. That is a blatant misstatement of the facts (also known as a lie.) None of these people work for Jay Leno, they work for NBC; the network signs their checks and they are responsible for the writers strike - along with every other greedy AMPTP member - which is the cause for these layoffs.

There's simply nothing for these people to do so long as the Leno writers refuse to work without a fair contract. It's a shitty situation for almost everybody involved, but this is not Jay Leno's fault. He may not be going out of his way to make sure the staffers have money for the Christmas season, but it's not exactly something that is expected of him either.

It's awesome that Leno, Jon Stewart, and Letterman are doing this, but it is kind of lame that the wealthiest of them all isn't chipping in to help the people hurt worst who also happen to be the people who will gain nothing from the strike. But be clear, Leno is not firing anybody. All the staffers of these shows are being laid-off.

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