Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist Ann Telnaes has resigned from the Washington Post after more than 15 years, accusing her editor of killing a drafted cartoon because of its mocking depiction of the publication’s owner, Jeff Bezos and President-elect Donald Trump.
Telnaes, who won the Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning in 2001, explained why she is “quitting the Washington Post” in a Friday post on Substack that showed her drawing of Bezos and other wealthy figures bowing down to Trump.
“I’ve worked for the Washington Post since 2008 as an editorial cartoonist. I have had editorial feedback and productive conversations — and some differences — about cartoons I have submitted for publication, but in all that time I’ve never had a cartoon killed because of who or what I chose to aim my pen at. Until now,” the cartoonist wrote.
“The cartoon that was killed criticizes the billionaire tech and media chief executives who have been doing their best to curry favor with incoming President-elect Trump,” she stated.
An image of her rough draft, posted to Substack and shared widely on other social media platforms, depicts Amazon and the Post‘s Bezos, Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, OpenAI’s Sam Altman, and Los Angeles Times publisher Patrick Soon-Shiong, kneeling at Trump’s feet while offering him bags of cash:
Mickey Mouse was also included bowing down in the image, in order to represent “the Walt Disney Company/ABC News,” Telnaes said.
While acknowledging that it is not uncommon to receive criticism and edits on her proposed cartoons from her editors, she said that it was “never because of the point of view inherent in the cartoon’s commentary” until now.
Despite her claims, Washington Post editorial page editor David Shipley told NPR that he respected Telnaes’ work, but said that her interpretation of the rejection was incorrect.
“Not every editorial judgment is a reflection of a malign force,” he said. “My decision was guided by the fact that we had just published a column on the same topic as the cartoon and had already scheduled another column — this one a satire — for publication. The only bias was against repetition.”
The publication received an outpouring of backlash from its Democrat readers ahead of the November 2024 presidential election, as Bezos refused to endorse a candidate as the paper did in years past.
Despite a few internal resignations and mass subscription cancellations from angry liberals who expected an endorsement of then-candidate Kamala Harris, Bezos held firmly to his position in a late-October op-ed.
“Presidential endorsements do nothing to tip the scales of an election. No undecided voters in Pennsylvania are going to say, ‘I’m going with Newspaper A’s endorsement.’ None,” the billionaire wrote for his own paper. “What presidential endorsements actually do is create a perception of bias. A perception of non-independence.”
He added that “neither campaign nor candidate was consulted or informed at any level or in any way about this decision. It was made entirely internally.”
Soon-Shiong also declined to let the Los Angeles Times issue a presidential endorsement after previously publicly backing President Joe Biden, former candidate Hillary Clinton, and former President Obama.
Breitbart news reported that Altman, Bezos, and Zuckerberg have all already pledged to support Trump’s inaugural committee with seven-figure contributions — landing them all in the bullseye of Telnaes’ cartoon target.
The Association of American Editorial Cartoonists, of which Telnaes was formerly president, made a statement in support of her.
“Corporate billionaires once again have brought an editorial cartoon to life with their craven censorship in bowing to a wannabe tyrant,” the group said in a news release. “Her principled resignation illustrates that while the pen is mightier than the sword, political cowardice once again eclipses journalistic integrity at The Washington Post.”
Jesus Christ is King
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