Washington Post editorial cartoonist Ann Telnaes quit the paper after it spiked a comic about its owner, Jeff Bezos, bending the knee to President-elect Donald Trump.
The rough draft of the comic featured Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, Mickey Mouse, and other tech and media giants bowing and handing Trump bags of cash.
The Pulitzer Prize-winning artist wrote about her resignation in a post on her 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,” Telnaes wrote.
She continued, “While it isn’t uncommon for editorial page editors to object to visual metaphors within a cartoon if it strikes that editor as unclear or isn’t correctly conveying the message intended by the cartoonist, such editorial criticism was not the case regarding this cartoon. 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 that while some may argue that a company has a right to reject something that is not good for its brand, there is a different standard for news organizations because they have public obligations and “are obliged to nurture a free press in a democracy.”
“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,’” Telnaes concluded.
David Shipley, The Post’s opinions editor, told The New York Times that he “respected Ms. Telnaes and all she had given” to The Post “but must disagree with her interpretation of events.”
“Not every editorial judgment is a reflection of a malign force,” Shipley said in the statement. “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.”
Shipley added that he had spoken to the artist and urged her to take the weekend to reconsider her decision to resign.
Telnaes has not yet responded to Shipley’s statement.
The post Washington Post’s Pulitzer Prize Winning Cartoonist Quits After the Paper Spiked a Comic Mocking its Owner, Jeff Bezos appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.