More than 2,300 members of the Writers Guild of America East and West (WGA) have signed an open letter condemning what they call “dangerous and escalating attacks on the First Amendment, independent media, and the free press” by the Trump Administration.
The letter is a forceful rebuke, warning that the administration’s actions — from lawsuits against news outlets to threats against broadcast licenses — represent an “unprecedented, authoritarian assault” on free expression. It singles out attempts to defund PBS and NPR, as well as the politically motivated cancellation of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, as evidence of a coordinated effort to silence dissenting voices.
The signers represent a who’s who of film and television, including Tony Gilroy (Andor), Spike Lee (Malcolm X), Adam McKay (Don’t Look Up), Liz Meriwether (New Girl), Ilana Glazer (Broad City), David Simon (The Wire), and Gillian Flynn (Gone Girl).
Chicago’s creative community is well-represented, with Lilly Wachowski (The Matrix Trilogy), comedian Roy Wood Jr., Saturday Night Live’s Sarah Sherman, and writer-performer Amber Ruffin adding their names.
The open letter frames the fight for a free press as inseparable from the role of writers in a democratic society. “We don’t have a king, we have a president,” it reads, calling on elected officials, industry leaders, and audiences to resist political pressure that undermines the media’s role as a check on power. Read the full letter below:
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.
For the WGA, the stakes go beyond politics — they touch the heart of storytelling itself. Writers, the letter argues, depend on the protection of free speech to challenge the status quo, hold power to account, and bring diverse perspectives to the public. Without those protections, both journalism and creative expression are at risk.
As the letter circulates, its message is clear: defending the First Amendment is not optional — it’s the foundation on which the entire industry stands.
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