A Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist abruptly resigned Friday from the Washington Post after her latest cartoon was killed by the editorial team, the cartoonist said.
Late Friday, in a Substack post titled “Why I’m quitting the Washington Post,” Ann Telnaes says 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.”
The cartoon, which Telnaes shared a draft of, depicts the Washington Post’s owner Jeff Bezos offering up a giant bag of cash while genuflecting at the feet of what appears to be 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,” Telnaes wrote, implying that it was her use of powerful elites that led to her work not getting published.
Drawings of Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Open AI CEO Sam Altman, the Los Angeles Times Publisher Patrick Soon-Shiong, and Disney’s Mickey Mouse character are also featured in the cartoon. The tech giants, who were openly opposed to Trump in previous years, have donated to the President-elect’s inauguration fund.
Telnaes, who has worked at the Washington Post since 2008, said that it was her editor who killed her cartoon. She acknowledged that it’s her responsibility to ensure that those in positions of power are held responsible for their actions.
“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,” Telnaes wrote.
Telnaes acknowledged that while it’s true that the Washington Post has “the right to expect employees to adhere to what’s good for the company,” that doesn’t mean they shouldn’t take responsibility to protect the free press.
“We’re talking about news organizations that have public obligations and who are obliged to nurture a free press in a democracy. Owners of such press organizations are responsible for safeguarding that free press—and trying to get in the good graces of an autocrat-in-waiting will only result in undermining that free press,” Telnaes wrote in her Substack.
The cartoonist noted that “it isn’t uncommon” for editors to reject cartoons that have unclear messages or metaphors, but “such editorial criticism was not the case regarding this cartoon.”
She stressed that this precedent is “dangerous for a free press,” and that “Democracy dies in darkness,” which is the Washington Post’s official slogan it adopted one month after Trump was inaugurated for his first term in 2017.
Telnaes won the 2001 Pulitzer Prize for her editorial cartooning when she was working at Tribune.
Trump will be sworn in for his second term on Jan. 20.