The Writers Guild of America West has publicly censured showrunner Tim Doyle after finding him guilty of posting a racist image on Facebook last year. Doyle was charged with posting a photo on Aug. 9, 2023 in a WGAW member Facebook group that other members “perceived as a racist and offensive depiction of a lynching.”
The WGA’s trial committee found that Doyle’s post “constituted conduct prejudicial to the welfare of the Guild and unfair dealing” and the guild’s board determined that his conduct “warrants public censure.”
“Mr. Doyle was charged with engaging in conduct prejudicial to the welfare of the Guild and unfair dealing with other members in violation of Article X.A., Section 1 of the Constitution,” guild leaders wrote in a message to members on Thursday.
A representative for Doyle did not immediately return TheWrap’s request for comment.
Doyle said last year that he was “very sorry” for the post in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter.
“I’m bored at the moment, and I write a lot of jokes,” he explained at the time. “I’m a comedy writer. I was brain dead in that moment, and I picked the wrong piece of clip art to go with a silly joke about killing myself after 100 days on the picket line. I Googled the words ‘cartoon man hanging from a tree’ and that’s what came up. I really think this has been a misunderstanding.”
“There’s a part of my brain that, in the spirit of creativity, I don’t always censor myself quickly enough,” he added. “My imagination didn’t take me to the place where other people would interpret from that awful drawing. Now I look at it and I get it. Again, I know that seems clueless, but my brain did not go there.”
He added that his “heart was in the right place” and that he “didn’t mean to hurt or inflame or anger anybody.”
“I just wanted to add a laugh to the pile of ruminating that we have been doing right now about the strike,” he said.
Doyle’s list of TV credits include “Rules of Engagement,” “Last Man Standing,” “Dr. Ken,” “Speechless” and “Better Off Ted.” He most recently served as showrunner and creator of the short-lived “The Goldbergs” spinoff “Schooled.”
Writer-director-actor Keith Powell (best known as Toofer on “30 Rock,” with credits also including “Shrinking,” “This Is Us” and more) served as one of the Writers Guild Facebook group’s admins and, following its posting, called it “epically horrible, racist, self-martyring, vile, clueless, out-of-touch, boneheaded, disturbing and toxic.” Others called Doyle out at the time when the post was made public.
