Sentence:  The outrage that greeted The Silence—howls of bishops, <WSD>scissorings</WSD> of censors, even feces-smeared toilet paper sent to the director—denoted public horror at a morally serious moviemaker surrendering (it seemed) ... 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  An act or instance of cutting (removing) with or as if with scissors, especially an act of cutting and censoring a film.