LOS ANGELES, Calif. - In a sharply worded letter released this week, more than 2,300 members of the Writers Guild of America accused President Donald Trump and his allies of launching an organized campaign to suppress independent media. The letter, which was signed by a wide range of television and film writers, from high-profile showrunners to political satirists and screenwriters, calls recent events an “unprecedented, authoritarian assault” on the First Amendment.

It is the most direct and coordinated public response to date from the professional storytelling community to a series of actions that the Guild says collectively amount to a serious threat to press freedom.

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 states.

At the center of the complaint is a lawsuit filed by Trump against CBS and its flagship news program, 60 Minutes. The lawsuit resulted in a $16 million settlement from Paramount Global, the parent company of CBS. The writers describe the case as meritless and view the payout as a signal that pressure from the president has begun to shift the legal and commercial terrain under major news organizations.

“In the last few months alone,” the letter continues, “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.”

The writers also note a broader pattern. Trump has routinely used his social media platforms to call for the cancellation of television programs that feature critical commentary, including late-night comedy and daytime talk shows. 

“He regularly calls for the cancellation of news and entertainment television shows that criticize him in late-night and, most recently, The View,” they write.

The Guild goes further, charging that elements of the federal government have begun to mirror and formalize the president’s public campaign. The letter accuses Republican lawmakers of targeting public media by defunding the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and asserts that the Federal Communications Commission required CBS to alter the ideological content of its programming as a condition for approving the recent Skydance Paramount merger.

“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.”

While the FCC has not commented directly on the allegations, the Guild’s letter situates the cancellation of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert within this broader pattern. “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 says.

The Guild frames the issue not as a partisan dispute but as a fundamental test of democratic norms and institutional independence. “These are un-American attempts to restrict the kinds of stories and jokes that may be told, to silence criticism and dissent.”

It continues:

We do not have a king; we have a president. And the president doesn’t get to pick what is on television, in movie theaters, on stage, on our bookshelves, or in the news.”

The letter ends with an appeal, both institutional and individual: "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.”

Its final line places the moment in a historical frame. “This period in American life will not last forever, and when it is over the world will remember who had the courage to speak out.”

Among the signees are Tony Gilroy (Andor), Spike Lee (Malcolm X), David Simon (The Wire), Lilly Wachowski (The Matrix Trilogy), Adam McKay (Don’t Look Up), Ilana Glazer (Broad City), Scott Frank (The Queen’s Gambit), Liz Merriwether (New Girl), Kenneth Lonergan (Manchester by the Sea), Justin Kuritzkes (Challengers), John Waters (Hairspray), Desus Nice (Desus & Mero), Gillian Flynn (Gone Girl), Celine Song (Past Lives), David Mandel (Veep), Amber Ruffin (Late Night With Seth Meyers), Soo Hugh (Pachinko), Sarah Sherman (SNL), Alfonso Cuarón (Roma), Phoebe Robinson (2 Dope Queens), Roy Wood Jr. (Have I Got News for You), Lucia Aniello, Paul W. Downs, Jen Statsky (Hacks), Winnie Holtzman (Wicked), Shawn Ryan (The Night Agent), Merrill Markoe (Late Night with David Letterman), Mike Schur (A Man on the Inside), and many others whose work spans genre, tone, and audience. What unites them, the letter makes clear, is a belief that the conditions for free expression are no longer guaranteed.

It is a striking message from an industry that is often more comfortable addressing politics through fiction than through collective action. But the writers do not appear to be interested in subtlety. They are saying, as clearly as possible, that the story itself is now at stake.