A story is a story is a story....

Two America's Next Top Model producers are picketing, because they want their work classified as writing. The classification would in turn make them eligible for certain Writers Guild of America benefits and union pay.

The direction reality TV has taken, in the last two years, makes this an interesting topic - especially where writing is concerned.

Reality TV has gone from blatantly false assertions that its programming is indeed REAL, translation - never doctored via editing - to open admissions that somebody puts a story arc together out of the hours of footage (duh). Thus making it reality-like.

It is this foundation that the ANTM producers are using to build a case. They are storytellers, they say, and should be allowed to join the writer's union. And the WGA is more than happy to welcome them.

I for one, agree.

Reality TV has displaced a disturbing number of television writing positions. Yet, if there were no staff to make drama, I mean sense of the footage, how many of us would bother watching?

We live life each day - it ain't ever as exciting as anything we see on an RTV show!

With a little creative splicing and dicing, voila, our lives could be as much fun as our fave reality tv "star."

What producers/writers on RTV programs do may not be traditional writing, but it's storytelling all the same.

What say you?