Washington Post cartoonist resigns after Jeff Bezos-Donald Trump cartoon murder

Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist Ann Telnaes has resigned from Washington Post after more than 15 years, accusing its publisher of killing a cartoon because of its mocking depiction of the publication’s owner, Jeff Bezos, and President-elect Donald Trump.

Telnaes, who won winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning in 2001, explained why she was “leaving the Washington Post” in a Friday job on Substack that showed his drawing of Bezos and other wealthy figures bowing to Trump.

“I have worked for the Washington Post since 2008 as a cartoonist. I’ve had editorial comments and productive conversations – and some differences – about the cartoons I’ve submitted for publication, but in all that time I’ve never seen a cartoon killed off because of who or what I chose to aim my pen. Until now,” the cartoonist wrote.

“The cartoon that was killed criticizes billionaire tech and media executives who did their best to curry favor with new President-elect Trump,” she said.

An image of his draft, posted on Substack and widely shared on other social media platforms, depicts Amazon and the JobBezos, Mark Zuckerberg of Meta, Sam Altman of OpenAI and Los Angeles Times editor Patrick Soon-Shiong, kneeling at Trump’s feet while offering him bags of cash:

Mickey Mouse was also shown bowing in the image, to represent “the Walt Disney Company/ABC News,” Telnaes said.

While acknowledging that it is not uncommon to receive criticism and edits on the designs she submits from her editors, she said this is “never because of the inherent point of view of the drawing comment” so far.

Despite his claims, Washington Post David Shipley, Editorial Page Editor said NPR said it respected Telnaes’ work, but said its interpretation of the rejection was incorrect.

“Not all editorial judgments are a reflection of a malevolent force,” he said. “My decision was guided by the fact that we had just published a column on the same subject as the cartoon and that we had already scheduled the publication of another column – this one being a satire. The only prejudice was against repeating a year.

The publication received a wave of backlash from its Democratic readers ahead of the November 2024 presidential election, as Bezos said. denied to support a candidate as the newspaper has done in the past.

Despite some internal resignations and mass cancellations of subscriptions from angry liberals who expected support for then-candidate Kamala Harris, Bezos remained steadfast in his position in late October. opinion article.

“Presidential endorsements do nothing to tip the scales of an election. No undecided voter in Pennsylvania will say, “I accept Newspaper A’s endorsement.” None,” the billionaire wrote for his own newspaper. “In reality, presidential endorsements create a perception of bias. A perception of non-independence.

He added that “neither the campaign nor the candidate were consulted or informed at any level or in any way about this decision.” This was done entirely in-house.

Soon-Shiong too denied leave it Los Angeles Times issuing a presidential endorsement after previously publicly supporting 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 — putting them all within the bullseye of the Telnaes cartoon target.

The Association of American Editorial Cartoonists, of which Telnaes previously served as president, issued a statement in support of her.

“Once again, corporate billionaires have brought an editorial caricature to life with their cowardly censorship by kowtowing to a would-be tyrant,” the group said in a statement. press release. “His principled resignation illustrates that while the pen is mightier than the sword, political cowardice is once again eclipsing the journalistic integrity of The Washington Post.”