Writers Guild Says Tom DeLay 'Called for Censorship'
The Writers Guild of America (WGA) apparently decided that after an NBC television show insulted House Majority Leader Tom DeLay it would come in with a slight of its own.
DeLay was understandably miffed about an episode of "Law & Order: Criminal Intent," which dealt with the fictional slaying of two judges by suspected right-wing extremists and had a police officer character cracking, "Maybe we should put out an APB [all points bulletin] for somebody in a Tom DeLay T-shirt."
DeLay penned a letter to NBC TV head Jeff Zucker expressing his displeasure with the offending episode.
DeLay characterized the TV incident as a "failure of stewardship of our public airwaves and as much evidence as anyone needs for the embarrassing state of the mainstream media's credibility."
Now, in a statement, the Writer's Guild is claiming that DeLay "shouldn't be dismissed as taking exception to being the butt of a joke" but that "his [DeLay's] deliberate, ominous words ... should be understood for what they are: a call of censorship."
The organization conceded that the "First Amendment allows DeLay to speak out in his own way" but added that the "same Amendment allows the writers of 'Law & Order' to write the series their own way, regardless of the congressman's views on the show."
"Though DeLay is obviously entitled to his opinions, neither he, nor any other governmental official, should ever be allowed to inhibit writers from freely expressing themselves," the WGA insisted.
The Left Coast Report hopes that the writers of "Law $ Order" freely express themselves all the way to the show's eventual cancellation.
I have a feeling the writer's guild didn't think a second before issuing their comments. NBC uses its 1st Amedment rights (as they point out) to attack DeLay (tho, this attack was highly inappropriate to begin with), and then DeLay writes NBC a letter complaining about this (as he should have), and that amounts to DeLay wanting to censor NBC? So, in the minds of the WGA, NBC can use its right of free speech to make outrageous attacks, but when DeLay does it, he's demonized as being on a campaign to censor the poor writers? Come on. That's just silly.
The Law and Order writer was dumb to come out with this line (it was merely an excuse to attack DeLay), and DeLay's comments couldn't possibly be taken to mean he wants anyone censored. He was simply using the same rights to defend his name that NBC used to issue its lame attack in the first place.