Did the Hollywood Writer’s Strike Cause the Recession?

I’ve had this theory for a couple of months now. Obviously the strike wasn’t the sole cause of the recession, nor was it even probably a major cause, but did the writer’s strike have any statistically significant role in our current economic downturn?

Each year over $150 billion is spent on advertising in the United States alone. I can only assume that businesses expect to at least match that investment with increased revenue. Thus advertising is related to some increase in economic activity.

However, during the WGA strike of 2007 and 2008, networks were forced to air reruns in place of fresh scripted shows. Those reruns led to lower ratings, fewer people watching television, fewer people watching television commercials, fewer people buying products and services as a result of watching commercials. Thus some depression of economic activity was a result of the WGA strike. I guess the harder question is just how much the strike affected the economy, and was that effect statistically significant or relatively trivial?