More than 2,300 members of the Writers Guild of America West and East, including many heavy hitters, have signed the union’s open letter decrying the Trump administration’s “recent threats to the free press.”
“We are members of the Writers Guild of America who speak with one voice to decry the dangerous and escalating attacks on the First Amendment, independent media, and the free press,” the letter reads in part. “[Trump] regularly calls for the cancelation of news and entertainment television shows that criticize him in late-night and, most recently, The View.” Read the letter in full below.
The missive is calls out the 60 Minutes lawsuit settlement, the Late Show cancellation, the defunding of public broadcasters and more. Oscar winners Spike Lee, Celine Song, Adam McKay, Alfonso Cuarón and Kenneth Lonergan are among those who signed the letter. The list also includes the likes of David Simon, Liz Merriwether, Mike Schur, Ilana Glazer, John Waters, Desus Nice, Roy Wood Jr., Shawn Ryan and Merrill Markoe. See the full list of signatories here.
Here is the full text of the letter from the WGA West and East:
We are members of the Writers Guild of America who speak with one voice to decry the dangerous and escalating attacks on the First Amendment, independent media, and the free press.
We are a union of screenwriters, television writers, and journalists built and sustained on the bedrock belief that bold storytelling, fearless comedy, and unflinching reporting are indispensable to a free and democratic society. We have always understood that fidelity to those beliefs could lead to attacks from our bosses, from corporate interests, or even from politicians. Still, we have always understood our role in a healthy democracy.
Now we face an unprecedented, authoritarian assault. In the last few months alone, President Trump has filed baseless lawsuits against news organizations that have published stories he does not like and leveraged them into payoffs, most notably at Paramount, which settled a meritless lawsuit against 60 Minutes for $16 million. He has retaliated against publications reporting factually on the White House and threatened broadcasters’ licenses. He regularly calls for the cancelation of news and entertainment television shows that criticize him in late-night and, most recently, The View.
Alarmingly, the bulk of the federal government has now joined these attacks. Congressional Republicans collaborated to defund the Corporation for Public Broadcasting in order to silence PBS and NPR. The FCC openly conditioned its approval of the Skydance-Paramount merger on assurances that CBS would make “significant changes” to the purported ideological viewpoint of its journalism and entertainment programming. FCC Chairman Brendan Carr has echoed Trump’s threats.
And yet Paramount still asks us to believe that the cancelation of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert was not about politics or merger approval.
These are un-American attempts to restrict the kinds of stories and jokes that may be told, to silence criticism and dissent.
We don’t have a king, we have a president. And the president doesn’t get to pick what’s on television, in movie theaters, on stage, on our bookshelves, or in the news.
We call on our elected representatives and industry leaders to resist this overreach. We call on our audiences, on every single person ready to fight for a free and democratic future, to raise their voice.
This is certainly not the first time that free speech has come under assault in this country, but free speech remains our right because generation after generation of Americans have dedicated themselves to its protection. Now and always, when writers come under attack, our collective power as a union allows us to fight back. This period in American life will not last forever, and when it’s over the world will remember who had the courage to speak out.
