{"id":263584,"date":"2025-09-29T10:41:09","date_gmt":"2025-09-29T10:41:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/263584\/"},"modified":"2025-09-29T10:41:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-29T10:41:09","slug":"hollywood-writers-were-already-struggling-now-they-fear-censorship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/263584\/","title":{"rendered":"Hollywood writers were already struggling. Now they fear censorship"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In Hollywood, something shifted in the six days between the time that Walt Disney Co. dropped \u201cJimmy Kimmel Live!\u201d <\/a>\u201cindefinitely,\u201d following Kimmel\u2019s comments about the suspect in the shooting death of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, and the late-night comedian\u2019s return.<\/p>\n

For many, Kimmel\u2019s rebound <\/a>appears to be a win for free speech and a testament to the power of boycotts against powerful corporate interests. However, for other writers, particularly comedy scribes, who view the events that transpired in the darkest, most McCarthy-esque terms, the fight over comedy may have just begun.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s fear and outrage at the same time,\u201d said Emmy-winning comedy writer Bruce Vilanch, who for years was the head writer for the Oscars and \u201cHollywood Squares\u201d and has written jokes for comics including Billy Crystal and Bette Midler.<\/p>\n

\u201cEver since \u2018woke\u2019 started before COVID and George Floyd, comedy became a minefield. And then, last week, it became a nuclear garden,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

Indeed, the day after Disney announced Kimmel\u2019s return, President Trump told reporters that TV networks critical of him are an \u201carm of the Democrat Party,\u201d and said, \u201cI would think maybe their license should be taken away.\u201d Angered that Kimmel was returning to the airwaves, he took to social media to threaten ABC and called for the late-night scalps of NBC\u2019s Seth Meyers and Jimmy Fallon.<\/p>\n

Such ominous threats have cast a pall in writers rooms across the industry.<\/p>\n

One showrunner currently developing multiple series, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that many of her colleagues have started to become more cautious about incorporating certain elements in their stories, something they didn\u2019t do before. Others are having discussions privately rather than posting them on social media.<\/p>\n

Several writers and showrunners who have worked on late-night shows, sitcoms and films declined to share their thoughts on the matter with The Times, citing fear of reprisals.<\/p>\n

The cascade of anxiety comes at a time when Hollywood continues to struggle to get on solid footing after the pandemic lockdown, the dual labor strikes in 2023 and cost-cutting across the media landscape.<\/p>\n

\u201cArtists are already very concerned about our consolidated media ecosystem. A small shrinking number of gatekeepers control what Americans watch on TV, and these conglomerates are now being coerced into censoring us all by an administration that demands submission and obedience from what should be a free and independent media,\u201d said television writer Meredith Stiehm, who is the outgoing president of Writers Guild of America West, during a rally in support of Kimmel outside the El Capitan Theatre last week.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis cowardice has not only put the livelihoods of 20 writers, crew members and performers in limbo,\u201d she said. \u201cIt has put our industry and our democracy in danger.\u201d<\/p>\n

Political satire has long held a mirror to human folly while challenging power with humor.<\/p>\n

More than 2,400 years ago, Greek playwright Aristophanes\u2019 biting, satirical comedies such as \u201cLysistrata\u201d ridiculed Athens leaders during the Peloponnesian War. Many of the English nursery rhymes that are now viewed as sweet stories of princesses and fairies began appearing during the 14th century as veiled swipes at the monarchy. Rather than a lovely children\u2019s melody, \u201cBaa Baa Black Sheep\u201d is said to be a critique of the wool tax imposed by King Edward I.<\/p>\n

During the 1950s and 1960s, the brilliant satirical singer-songwriter (and mathematician) Tom Lehrer<\/a> skewered taboo topics of the day such as the Catholic Church, militarism and racial conflict in America through parody songs.<\/p>\n

In the early 1970s, George Carlin\u2019s controversial monologue about the \u201cSeven Words You Can Never Say on Television\u201d set off a landmark Supreme Court case that broadened the definition of indecency on public airwaves and set a free speech precedent for comedians.<\/p>\n

Every presidential campaign season has become must-see TV on \u201cSaturday Night Live.\u201d Think Dana Carvey\u2019s George H.W. Bush, Phil Hartman\u2019s Bill Clinton, Tina Fey\u2019s Sarah Palin or Alec Baldwin\u2019s Donald Trump.<\/p>\n

But now the political climate has changed drastically.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a dark time for comedians and, by extension, for all Americans,\u201d said a statement<\/a> put out by hundreds of comedians under the banner Comedians4Kimmel in the wake of his ouster.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen the government targets one of us, they target all of us. They strike at the heart of our shared humanity. They strip away the basic right every person deserves: to speak freely, question boldly, and laugh loudly.\u201d<\/p>\n

What\u2019s different now is that where once market and cultural forces placed pressures on comedians \u2014 see Ellen DeGeneres and Roseanne Barr \u2014 the squeeze is now coming directly from the government. (Barr, who was fired from her eponymous reboot in 2018 <\/a>after she made a racist tweet about senior Obama advisor Valerie Jarrett, has accused ABC of having a \u201cdouble standard.\u201d)<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s just called censorship,\u201d said Vilanch. \u201cThis is the government actually intervening in the most capricious way.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not just late-night comedy that is deemed offensive, Trump has made public a rolling perceived enemies list, and he is going after them with vigor.<\/p>\n

Just last week, former FBI Director James Comey<\/a> was indicted, and Atty. Gen. Pam Bondi <\/a>said that she would \u201cabsolutely target\u201d people who engaged in \u201chate speech.\u201d<\/p>\n

This month, Trump sued the New York Times for $15 billion,<\/a> claiming that the paper and four of its journalists had engaged in a \u201cdecades-long pattern \u2026 of intentional and malicious defamation.\u201d A federal judge dismissed the suit. In July, he sued the Wall Street Journal <\/a>and its owner, media mogul Rupert Murdoch, for $10 billion, claiming defamation. That suit is ongoing.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s deemed funny or offensive has shifted through the years. Comedy writers have long pushed that line and adjusted. But after the cultural wars and trigger warnings of recent years, where writers adapted to audience sensitivities, they are now facing an era where offending the president and his administration itself is considered illegal.<\/p>\n

\u201dSo much was going on before,\u201d said a veteran late-night TV writer. \u201cIt just feels like another brick in the wall of the world that I have worked in for the past 35 years no longer exists.\u201d<\/p>\n

The uproar over Kimmel began after the comedian seemed to suggest during his monologue that Tyler Robinson<\/a>, the Utah man accused in the shooting death of Kirk, might have been a pro-Trump Republican.<\/p>\n

Last Tuesday, after Kimmel came back on air with a defiant defense of free speech, several writers sighed a breath of relief, seeing his return as a victory.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt would have been scary if this actually ended in his firing,\u201d said the former late-night writer.<\/p>\n

But the culture and free speech wars are not over.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think [comedy] will get sharper,\u201d said Vilanch. \u201cIt will get sharper and probably meaner because people are angry, and they want to fight back. And that\u2019s always what happens when you try and shut people down. They come back stronger.\u201d<\/p>\n