Texas Censorship?

The Texas legislature has authorized $22 million in funding to boost the state's film and computer-game industry. Time magazine recently did a story on the fund because monies won't be released to any project that "portrays Texas or Texans in a negative fashion."

According to correspondent Hilary Hylton in Austin, "the broad language of the Texas law has raised First Amendment concerns for the Motion Picture Association of America":

Before the Texas bill was signed earlier this month on an Austin sound stage, the MPAA urged Gov. Rick Perry in a letter to veto the legislation. "Motion pictures made in the United States are the most popular form of entertainment worldwide because filmmakers are free to tell stories on film without fear of government censorship."

Now, see if you can follow their logic here. Filmmakers can produce whatever they want in Texas, but the MPAA says that if Texas residents don't pay for it, we're censoring the artists. This logic fails to grasp the protections of the First Amendment found in any Civics 101 class.

Buried deep in the story (seventh paragraph in ten), Dallas producer and filmmaker Todd Sims said, "No one is saying you can't shoot a movie in Texas that makes Texas look bad. All we are saying is you are not going to get a grant." And all filmmakers enjoy what the story calls a "generous sales tax exemption" on production costs regardless of content.

Oh. Never mind then.