Washington Post cartoonist Ann Telnaes has resigned after a sketch depicting Jeff Bezos bowing in front of United States President-elect Donald Trump was rejected.
Telnaes has been a cartoonist at the Washington Post since 2008 and said the rejection of the cartoon is a game changer that could be “dangerous for free press” in a blog post.
“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,” she said.
The cartoon depicts Amazon and the Washington Post owner Bezos, Facebook and Meta owner and CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, Open AI CEO, Sam Altman, LA Times publisher Patrick Soon-Shiong and Mickey Mouse kneeling before a giant statue of Trump with bags of money.
Telnaes said she created the cartoon because many of these men have lucrative government contacts and meet with Trump at his Mar-a-Lago club.
“As an editorial cartoonist, my job is to hold powerful people and institutions accountable,” she said.
“For the first time, my editor prevented me from doing that critical job.
“But I will not stop holding truth to power through my cartooning, because as they say, ‘Democracy dies in darkness’.”
During the 2024 presidential election, The Washington Post made a point of having no political affiliation, with Bezos even writing an opinion piece in the paper defending the decision in October.
Since then, Bezos has said he plans to donate USD$1 million (A$1.6 million) to Trump’s inauguration fund and has met with the president-elect at his Mar-a-Largo club.
The Association of American Editorial Cartoonists (AAEC) have released a statement supporting Telnaes’ decision to leave the Washington Post and has encouraged other cartoonists to use the hashtag #StandWithAnn in solidarity.
“(Telnaes’) principled resignation illustrates that while the pen is mightier than the sword, political cowardice once again eclipses journalistic integrity at The Washington Post.,” the statement said.
“We request that all editorial cartoonists do a finished version of her rough and post it in solidarity with Ann’s brave and sadly necessary decision.”
In a statement provided to The Associated Press, David Shipley, the newspaper’s editorial page editor, said he disagrees with the Telnaes’ interpretation of events as the paper had just published a column on the same topic as the cartoon and was set to publish another.
“Not every editorial judgement is a reflection of a malign force. ... The only bias was against repetition,” Shipley said.
