It’s Dangerous to Subject Creative Arts to Censorship

While we are deeply sympathetic to Susan Shaw’s concerns about the issues of guns and violence (Counterpunch, Nov. 11), we believe she has failed to put her comments in context.

She writes as if she does not realize that she is watching a comedy--something that is not only fictional but satirical as well.

Regardless of the point of view that the episode of “Cybill” dealing with gun ownership seemed to be promoting, it is extremely dangerous to subject the creative arts to moral censorship.

If all fictional characters were expected to be morally responsible, emotionally balanced and sensitive to racial and gender differences, we would never have had such landmark comedies as “All in the Family,” “Seinfeld,” “Roseanne” and “Absolutely Fabulous.”

ELAINE POPE, Santa Monica

MIKE CHESSLER, Los Angeles

Editor’s note: Pope is a writer/producer who has among her credits “Murphy Brown” and “Seinfeld,” for which she won an Emmy. Chessler is a freelance writer.