Pulitzer-Prize-Winner Ann Telnaes Quits the Washington Post After Editors Nix Cartoon Mocking Bezos (and His Tech/Media Mogul Cohorts) for Paying Fealty to Trump
Ann Telnaes, from her personal site (alas) on Substack:
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 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. There have been
multiple articles recently about these men with lucrative
government contracts and an interest in eliminating regulations
making their way to Mar-a-lago. The group in the cartoon included
Mark Zuckerberg/Facebook & Meta founder and CEO, Sam Altman/OpenAI
CEO, Patrick Soon-Shiong/LA Times publisher, the Walt Disney
Company/ABC News, and Jeff Bezos/Washington Post owner. […]
As an editorial cartoonist, my job is to hold powerful people and
institutions accountable. For the first time, my editor prevented
me from doing that critical job. So I have decided to leave the
Post. I doubt my decision will cause much of a stir and that it
will be dismissed because I’m just a cartoonist. But I will not
stop holding truth to power through my cartooning, because as they
say, “Democracy dies in darkness”.
The only thing wrong with the cartoon is that she drew it too soon to include Tim Cook. The cartoon isn’t even particularly scathing. It shows these moguls as offering money to Trump — which they are! What a bizarre decision by Telnaes’s editors.
This isn’t a sign that the Washington Post has taken another turn for the worse. It’s simply proof of what many of us wrote before the election, when Bezos kiboshed the Post editorial board’s endorsement of Kamala Harris. In one fell swoop that decision collapsed the entirety of The Washington Post’s editorial integrity. This Telnaes fiasco is just more proof. More will follow until Bezos sells.
★
Ann Telnaes, from her personal site (alas) on Substack:
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 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. There have been
multiple articles recently about these men with lucrative
government contracts and an interest in eliminating regulations
making their way to Mar-a-lago. The group in the cartoon included
Mark Zuckerberg/Facebook & Meta founder and CEO, Sam Altman/OpenAI
CEO, Patrick Soon-Shiong/LA Times publisher, the Walt Disney
Company/ABC News, and Jeff Bezos/Washington Post owner. […]
As an editorial cartoonist, my job is to hold powerful people and
institutions accountable. For the first time, my editor prevented
me from doing that critical job. So I have decided to leave the
Post. I doubt my decision will cause much of a stir and that it
will be dismissed because I’m just a cartoonist. But I will not
stop holding truth to power through my cartooning, because as they
say, “Democracy dies in darkness”.
The only thing wrong with the cartoon is that she drew it too soon to include Tim Cook. The cartoon isn’t even particularly scathing. It shows these moguls as offering money to Trump — which they are! What a bizarre decision by Telnaes’s editors.
This isn’t a sign that the Washington Post has taken another turn for the worse. It’s simply proof of what many of us wrote before the election, when Bezos kiboshed the Post editorial board’s endorsement of Kamala Harris. In one fell swoop that decision collapsed the entirety of The Washington Post’s editorial integrity. This Telnaes fiasco is just more proof. More will follow until Bezos sells.