Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist Ann Telnaes resigned from The Washington Post after the newspaper declined to publish her satirical cartoon featuring the paper’s billionaire owner, Jeff Bezos. Telnaes, who had been with the paper since 2008, created a cartoon that depicted Bezos, Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, and OpenAI’s Sam Altman kneeling before a statue of President-elect Donald Trump, offering bags of cash, with Mickey Mouse also in a prostrate position.
Telnaes described the rejection of her cartoon as a “game changer,” calling it detrimental to a free press. She explained that the cartoon was a critique of tech and media executives who were aligning themselves with the incoming Trump administration, particularly those with government contracts and an interest in deregulation. This marked the first time in her career that a cartoon had been censored due to its subject matter.
In her resignation note on Substack, Telnaes expressed disappointment over the decision, stating that she had never faced such restrictions before. She emphasized that the cartoon was an attempt to expose the financial connections between the tech moguls and political powers.
David Shipley, editorial page editor at The Washington Post, defended the paper’s decision, stating that editorial judgment, not bias against Bezos, influenced the rejection. He pointed out that the same topic had already been addressed in a recent column, and another satirical piece was scheduled for publication.
Telnaes’ resignation follows a history of controversies regarding the censorship of her work. In 2015, The Washington Post retracted a cartoon she had created depicting the young daughters of Senator Ted Cruz as monkeys, citing a policy against involving children in political cartoons.
The incident occurs amid tensions between Bezos and Trump, including Bezos’ political contributions and praise for Trump’s re-election bid, as well as a significant loss of subscribers to The Washington Post after Bezos intervened in the editorial board’s endorsement decisions in 2020. Similar editorial independence issues have been seen at the Los Angeles Times, owned by Patrick Soon-Shiong, where political endorsements have also faced challenges.
