More than 2,300 Hollywood power players have signed a letter attacking President Donald Trump for what they call an “authoritarian assault” on free speech over his defamation lawsuits against left-wing media organizations.
The letter sponsored by the Writer’s Guild of America (WGA) East and West unions was signed by writers including Spike Lee, Adam McKay, David Simon, Lilly Wachowski, Ilana Glazer, Mike Schur, Liz Merriwether, Tony Gilroy, and Scott Frank, among many others.
The letter claims Trumps lawsuits are “baseless” and that he has attacked “published stories he does not like and leveraged them into payoffs.”
The letter cites the lawsuit the president filed against CBS for the 60 Minutes interview with Kamala Harris that was edited down to make her look better during the 2024 presidential campaign. It also claims that Trump has “retaliated against publications reporting factually on the White House and threatened broadcasters’ licenses.”
Unsurprisingly, the letter also blasts Trump and Republicans for the campaign to defund NPR and PBS.
The letter also claims that Trump and FCC Chair Brendan Carr “openly” threatened to block Paramount’s merger with Skydance unless changes were made to the balance of political news coverage.
“These are un-American attempts to restrict the kinds of stories and jokes that may be told, to silence criticism and dissent,” the letter bloviates. “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.”
The letter also alleges without evidence that The Late Show host Stephen Colbert was fired because of Trump.
“And yet Paramount still asks us to believe that the cancellation of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert was not about politics or merger approval,” the letter states.
A White House spokesperson replied to the claim by telling Variety that Colbert was fired because he was a massive money loser for CBS.
“Any business with common sense would cancel the production of a failing product that loses $40 million annually — which is exactly what Colbert’s show was doing. President Trump is right, everyday Americans don’t want to watch Colbert’s talentless, money-losing show. Protecting the First Amendment is a top priority to President Trump, which is why he signed an executive order on day one to stop federal censorship and protect freedom of speech,” White House spokeswoman Taylor Rogers said.
The letter concludes by calling on elected officials to “resist this overreach” as well as calling for audiences to “raise their voice” to protect the left-wing bias in the media.
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