Washington Post cartoonist resigns after refusal of caricature by Jeff Bezos, owner of the newspaper

This Saturday, January 4, press cartoonist Ann Telnaes announced that she was leaving the Washington Post. The reason given by the artist? The refusal, by the management of the newspaper, whose slogan is as a reminder “democracy dies in darkness”, of a caricature criticizing in particular the owner of the daily, Jeff Bezos.

“The drawing that was suppressed criticizes the tech and media bosses and billionaires who are doing everything to curry favor with the president-elect”

Facebook, AI, Mickey…

The drawing was published by the designer on her own blog this Saturday, in an article entitled “Why I’m leaving the Washington Post”. And has since been taken up on social media by many people in the United States and elsewhere, including Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren. “A cartoonist shows the path of courage and principles, while a major newspaper tramples on freedom of expression,” notes Patrick Chappatte, Swiss press cartoonist, on X.

The rejected work shows the founder of Amazon on his knees handing a bag bearing the dollar sign to a statue representing the future American president, Donald Trump. In the drawing, Jeff Bezos is alongside the founder of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, the boss of the artificial intelligence company OpenAI, Sam Altman, and the owner of the Los Angeles Times, Patrick Soon-Shiong.

A little further on, a prostrate Mickey Mouse represents the Walt Disney Company, itself owner of ABC News. The channel had agreed to pay fifteen million dollars to end defamation proceedings brought by Donald Trump.

“Rehearsal”

Cartoonist for the Washington Post since 2008 and winner of several awards, including the Pulitzer Prize for press cartoons in 2001, Ann Telnaes explains in the article on her blog that she “never had a drawing rejected” because of the subject that she had chosen to depict, “until now”. “The drawing that was suppressed criticizes the tech and media bosses and billionaires who do everything to curry favor with the president-elect,” she explains. “There have been cases where sketches have been rejected or corrections requested, but never because of the point of view inherent in the commentary on the drawing. This is a game changer…and it’s dangerous for a free press.”

“The only bias was to oppose the repetition”

Asked by AFP, the Washington Post, for its part, contested Ann Telnaes’ version. Saying that he respected the designer and all her contribution to the daily newspaper, the head of the editorial pages David Shipley affirmed that his decision to reject the drawing had been “guided by the fact that we had just published an editorial on the same subject” and that another, satirical, was already planned. “The only bias was to oppose the repetition,” he said.

Jeff Bezos at Mar-a-Lago

This resignation comes after a trip by Jeff Bezos to Mar-a-Lago, the Florida residence of the president-elect, who promised to “restore” the media through legal action. Even before starting his second term, the Republican has in fact signaled his intention to launch an avalanche of complaints against the media, which he calls “the enemies of the people”. Many lawyers believe that many procedures will not succeed, but that they risk creating an effect of intimidation and potential self-censorship.