Ann Telnaes, the well-regarded editorial cartoonist, has decided to leave her position at The Washington Post after nearly 15 years.
Telnaes, a Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist, shared her reasons for departing the newspaper, following an incident where a cartoon she created was ‘killed’ by an editor. The illustration featured Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg from Meta, Sam Altman of Open AI, Patrick Soon-Shiong from The Los Angeles Times, and Disney’s Mickey Mouse.
In a Substack post, Telnaes detailed that throughout her tenure at The Post, she has ‘never’ had a cartoon stopped from publication before.
While she’s experienced ‘editorial feedback and productive conversations – and some differences – about cartoons’ she submitted, no cartoon had ever been entirely barred due to ‘who or what’ she aimed her ‘pen at’ – ‘until now’.
So, what exactly was so controversial about a cartoon involving Jeff Bezos?
Telnaes elaborated: “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.
“There have been multiple articles recently about these men with lucrative government contracts and an interest in eliminating regulations making their way to Mar-a-lago.
“The group in the cartoon included Mark Zuckerberg/Facebook & Meta founder and CEO, Sam Altman/AI CEO, Patrick Soon-Shiong/LA Times publisher, the Walt Disney Company/ABC News, and Jeff Bezos/Washington Post owner.”
The illustration depicted the billionaires kneeling before a Trump statue, offering bags of money, with Mickey Mouse completely slumped on the floor.
So why was this particular cartoon ‘killed’ when others were not?
Telnaes explained that sometimes ‘visual metaphors within a cartoon’ are objected to, given tweaks or suggested changes if they don’t clearly communicate the intended ‘message’ to the editor. However, she argued that ‘such editorial criticism was not the case regarding this cartoon’.
She added: “[It’s] never [been] because of the point of view inherent in the cartoon’s commentary. That’s a game changer…and dangerous for a free press.”
While she acknowledges that a company might ‘expect employees to adhere to what’s good for the company’, she notes that with ‘news organizations that have public obligations and who are obliged to nurture a free press in a democracy,’ the situation differs.
She continued: “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.
“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.”
Following this incident, Telnaes decided to leave The Post.
As an Advisory board member for the Geneva-based Freedom Cartoonists Foundation and a former board member of Cartoonists Rights, Telnaes believes ‘editorial cartoonists are vital for civic debate and have an essential role in journalism.’ Many of her colleagues abroad have risked ‘their livelihoods and sometimes even their lives to expose injustices and hold their countries’ leaders accountable’.
She concluded: “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.'”
David Shipley, The Post’s opinions editor, addressed the situation in a statement quoted by The New York Times, indicating his disagreement with Telnaes’ perspective.
He stated: “Not every editorial judgment is a reflection 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 satire – for publication. The only bias was against repetition.”