Open Letter from Members of the Writers Guild of America Protesting Trump’s “Assault” on Freedom of Expression
According to CinemaDrame News Agency, More than 2,300 members of the Writers Guild of America (WGA) have signed an open letter protesting what they call President Donald Trump’s “unprecedented and authoritarian assault” on freedom of expression. Signatories to the letter include Adam McKay, director of Vice; Spike Lee, director of Highest 2 Lowest; Mike Schur, producer of the series The Office and The Good Place; and Tony Gilroy, producer of the series Andor.
In part of the letter, these members criticize Trump’s “baseless” lawsuits against news organizations for publishing “reports he does not like,” citing as an example Paramount Global’s recent $16 million settlement. Trump had sued CBS’s 60 Minutes and Paramount, alleging that the program’s producers had edited an interview with Kamala Harris to help her.
The letter further claims that Republican members of Congress collaborated with the Trump administration to cut funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) in an attempt to “silence PBS and NPR.”
The letter continues: “These un-American actions aimed at restricting reporting and the jokes that might be made are intended to stifle criticism and dissent. We do not have a king; we have a president. And the president does not decide what is said on television, in the movies, on stage, in bookstores, or in the news.”
