Washington Post Cartoonist Quits, Says Management Spiked Cartoon of Bezos Bending the Knee to Trump
AP Photo/Lauren Victoria Burke
Washington Post editorial cartoonist Ann Telnaes revealed on Friday that she has quit her job after management killed a submission of hers that lampooned business titans such as Jeff Bezos, who owns the publication.
The drawing features Bezos and other corporate leaders kneeling before President-elect Donald Trump and offering him sacks of money. Bezos, who founded Amazon and is its executive chairman, has publicly warmed to Trump in recent months. Last month, Amazon announced it would donate $1 million to Trump’s inauguration committee.
Bezos famously spiked an editorial endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris ahead of last year’s election. The move caused a revolt among editorial staff and readers, more than 200,000 of whom canceled their subscriptions to the paper.
“I’ve worked for the Washington Post since 2008 as an editorial cartoonist,” Telnaes wrote on her Substack. “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 went on to explain the cartoon she drew that led to the split:
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.
She also included a rough draft of the image:
Ann Telnaes/Substack
“There will be people who say, ‘Hey, you work for a company and that company has the right to expect employees to adhere to what’s good for the company,'” Telnaes went on. “That’s true except 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.”
Last month, it was reported that Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg donated $1 million to Trump’s inauguration. On Friday, Apple CEO Tim Cook also ponied up $1 million.
