After her caricature about Post owner Jeff Bezos was rejected, Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist Ann Telnaes announced her resignation from The Washington Post on Friday.
Telneas wrote on Substack that although she has had disagreements with editors in the past, she has never had a cartoon destroyed because of the person or thing I choose to target with my pen. So far.
In the cartoon in question, billionaire internet and media CEOs, such as Jeff Bezos, the CEO of Amazon and Post, and Mark Zuckerberg, the owner of Facebook/META, were shown kneeling in front of a statue of Donald Trump while carrying sacks of cash.
Holding influential individuals and organizations responsible is my responsibility as an editorial cartoonist, Telneas stated. My editor stopped me from executing that crucial task for the first time. Thus, I’ve made the decision to leave the Post.
Following Trump’s election, Bezos, Zuckerberg, and other executives traveled to Mar-a-Lago to meet with Trump, as their companies have significant contracts with the federal government.
Bezos, who gave $1 million to the Trump inauguration fund, has over $13 billion in federal contracts, including one with Blue Origin for the construction of lunar modules and another with Amazon for web services.
To be sure, there have been times when sketches have been turned down or changes have been asked for, but never as a result of the commentary’s intrinsic point of view, Telneas noted. That is perilous for a free press and a game changer.
The Daily Cartoonist reported on Telneas’ resignation, which coincides with the Post’s ongoing turmoil following the departure of its chief editor in a June 2024 shake-up. The decision to withdraw the presidential endorsement for Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris in October caused the daily to lose over 200,000 subscribers and numerous columnists and editorial board members to quit.
The New York Times revealed this week that two prominent political reporters from the Post were departing to work for The Atlantic.
For her editorial cartoons in a variety of media, Telneas has won multiple accolades. Her 2001 print cartoons earned her the Pulitzer Prize.
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Amy Worden
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