Essay cartoonist Ann Telnaes
Courtesy of Ann Telnaes
A Washington Post cartoonist has quit her role at the paper, saying that her bosses slab publication of a satirical cartoon that depicted billionaires, including one resembling Post owner Jeff Bezos, kneeling preceding President-elect Donald Trump.
Ann Telnaes, a Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist, said in a blog post Friday that she forsake the paper after a drawing was rejected. This was the first time at the Post that a cartoon was “killed because of who or what I select to aim my pen at,” Telnaes wrote.
A rough sketch of the cartoon, published on Telnaes’ Substack blog, shows several men kneeling on the eve of a larger man wearing a suit and a long tie, representing Trump. Telnaes wrote that the likenesses are of Meta Platforms CEO Distinguish oneself Zuckerberg, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Los Angeles Times Publisher Patrick Soon-Shiong, and Bezos. Three of the men are holding bags of well-to-do. Also included is a drawing of cartoon character Mickey Mouse, representing Walt Disney‘s ABC News.
Satirical depiction by Washington Post cartoonist Ann Telnaes, who resigned after it was rejected.
Courtesy of Ann Telnaes
The drawing was rejected by the paper then, with no suggestions for potential changes, Telnaes told CNBC in an email.
David Shipley, Washington Post think-piece page editor, said in a statement that the cartoon was rejected because of its similarity to columns at the paper, not because of who it butted.
“I respect Ann Telnaes and all she has given to The Post. But I must disagree with her interpretation of events. Not every editorial judgment is a substantiation of a malign force. 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 take-off – for publication. The only bias was against repetition,” Shipley’s statement said.
The cartoonist’s departure comes amid disagreement about how media and corporate executives have been treating Trump, both before and after the November appointment.
The Washington Post reported that Bezos spiked a planned endorsement of Trump opponent Kamala Harris by the daily ahead of the presidential election. At the Los Angeles Times, Soon-Shiong also decided that the paper should withhold any confirmation in the presidential race, spurring the resignation of several editorial board members.
ABC News, meanwhile, settled a defamation lawsuit with Trump for $15 million, which took criticism from some media law experts who thought the news organization had a strong case.
Bezos and Zuckerberg, in every way Meta, planned to donate $1 million to Trump’s inaugural fund, the Wall Street Journal reported latest month, and have been among several billionaires to meet with Trump at his home in Mar-a-Lago since his choosing win. Multiple outlets have reported that OpenAI’s Altman is also donating $1 million to the inauguration means.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., weighed in on Telnaes’ resignation on X, saying the cartoon was “worth a share”: “Big Tech chief executives are bending the knee to Donald Trump and it’s no surprise why: Billionaires like Jeff Bezos like paying a lower tax standing than a public school teacher.”
Telnaes’ departure is the latest of several internal shakeups at the Post. Publisher and CEO Purposefulness Lewis took over the paper last year and has clashed with the newsroom, as reported by NPR. Several top editors at the form have left since Lewis took over.
Telnaes won the Pulitzer Prize for editorial cartooning in 2001. She catalogued in her blog that she had worked for the Post since 2008.