PBS Edits Anti-Trump Section Out of Spiegelman Documentary

D. D. Degg Published: May 21, 2025 Updated: May 21, 2025 1 minute 4 comments

It has been revealed that the recent documentary Art Spiegelman: Disaster Is My Muse was edited before PBS allowed it to be aired as part of their American Masters series.

From Documentary Magazine:

Twelve days before Art Spiegelman: Disaster Is My Muse (2024) was set to broadcast on April 15 across PBS stations nationwide as part of its strand American Masters, the filmmakers were told that a 90-second sequence—which shows the famous artist discussing an anti-Trump cartoon he created for the 2017 Women’s March newspaper—would be cut from the documentary.

The deleted sequence—some of which can be seen on this Instagram post—may be short, but it explicitly ties the anti-fascist themes of the film and Spiegelman’s seminal graphic novel Maus to a timely Trumpian critique.

According to the filmmakers, the decision was imposed by the programming executives at PBS national and agreed to by leadership at WNET, which is one of the largest of PBS’s network of 350 member stations and produces American Masters. A response from a WNET Group spokesperson justifies the edit “as it was no longer in context today. The change was made to maintain the integrity and appropriateness of the content for broadcast at this time.”

The Documentary magazine article also mentions other instances of PBS seemingly obeying in advance and/or being intinidatedd by the Trump administration and its Congressional minions.

Comments ⁴

Bob Crittenden

Maus had been on my “I need to read that sometime” list, and the PBS show prompted me to finally do so. I’m disappointed to learn the show was censored, especially as after reading the books (I and II), I started noticing similarities to current events (e.g., people being abducted by unidentifiable thugs and transported to a foreign prison). I just hope our “great experiment” result in the same ending.

J. Gibs

PBS needs a cast on both legs.
those knees are weak.

Manny

They’re so desperate to keep him off their back, it’s honestly sad. How spiteful and vindictive can one man be???

JP Trostle

While this — or anything, really — won’t buy a reprieve from the Littlest Dictator, I have to say that PBS makes cuts to docs all the time that have little to do with capitulation. Or at least not capitulation to those in power.

About a decade back I was a contributor to a documentary team making a feature length on veterans and PTSD. I watched the doc go thru numerous permutations over the years, but when it landed on American Experience, PBS insisted it be cut down to an hour — and that some of its most powerful (and disturbing) scenes be removed. Wouldn’t want trauma in a piece on trauma upsetting the blue hairs after all.

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