Washington Post editorial cartoonist Ann Telnaes on Friday revealed that she quit the newspaper after it killed a piece depicting its billionaire owner, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, on bended knee for President-elect Donald Trump.
“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,” wrote the Pulitzer Prize winner in a post to her Substack page.
Telnaes — who began work at the Post in 2008 — shared a rough draft of the cartoon which also shows Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg, The Los Angeles Times owner Patrick Soon-Shiong, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Mickey Mouse (to represent The Walt Disney Company, parent company of ABC News) kissing Trump’s ring.
The figures appear to be offering Trump bags of money, offering to kiss him or — in Mickey’s case — bowing to him as he’s perched atop of a set of steps.
Telnaes wrote that the cartoon criticizesthose “whohavebeen doing their best to curry favor” with Trump.
“To be clear, there have been instances where sketches have been rejected or revisions requested, but never because of the point of view inherent in the cartoon’s commentary. That’s a game changer…and dangerous for a free press,” Telnaes wrote.
David Shipley, the Post’s editorial page editor, said in a statement to The New York Times that he respects Telnaes and her contributions to the newspaper “but must disagree with her interpretation of events.”
“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 cartoonist’s decision comes after the newspaper facedbacklashoverits move to not endorse a candidate in last year’s presidential election.
The Post’s editorial board had reportedly drafted an endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harrisbefore Bezos “reviewed” it prior to it getting scrapped.
The newspaper regularly endorsed a candidate for nearly half a century before the decision, which led to a drop in subscribers and a number of staff resignations.
Bezos, in remarks last month, said the Post made the “right decision” by not endorsing a candidate.
Telnaes, who recently reshared a 2019 visual essay where she described editorial cartoonists as democracy’s “canary in a coal mine,” wrote that an editorial cartoonist’s job is to “hold powerful people and institutions accountable.”
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“For the first time, my editor prevented me from doing that critical job,” she wrote.
She later continued, “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’.”