It is said that all good things come to an end. Well, for longtime Washington Post editorial cartoonist Ann Telnaes, such is true.
Telnaes quit the paper after it declined her cartoon satirizing the company’s owner, Jeff Bezos.
On Substack, Telanes explained that she quit the paper over free speech concerns, given that her cartoon about the owner was declined. The cartoon was created to show the perceived relationships between tech moguls and President Donald Trump, per the Daily Caller.
Telnaes had served in the role since 2008.
On Substack, Telnaes lashed out against the publication for having “killed” her cartoon.
“I’ve worked for the Washington Post since 2008 as an editorial cartoonist. 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.
Telnaes said her cartoon rebukes the tech and media moguls who are “trying to curry favor” with Trump.
“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,” she said.
Telnaes said that recent reports have indicated that lucrative businessmen in the tech and media industry have been traveling to Trump’s residence – Mar-a-Lago – to negotiate government contracts for their companies.
“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 former editorial cartoonist said.
“While it isn’t uncommon for editorial page editors to object to visual metaphors within a cartoon if it strikes that editor as unclear or isn’t correctly conveying the message intended by the cartoonist, such editorial criticism was not the case regarding this cartoon,” she added.
“To be clear, there have been instances where sketches have been rejected or revisions requested, but never because of the point of view inherent in the cartoon’s commentary. That’s a game changer…and dangerous for a free press,” she continued.
Telanes claimed that she has seen her fellow colleagues in the editorial world face the same repercussions for “holding their countries’ leaders accountable.”
“As a member of the Advisory board for the Geneva based Freedom Cartoonists Foundation and a former board member of Cartoonists Rights, I believe that editorial cartoonists are vital for civic debate and have an essential role in journalism,” she asserted.
At the conclusion of her post, Telanes expressed her belief that being an editorial cartoonist is about “holding powerful people and institutions accountable.”
“For the first time, my editor prevented me from doing that critical job. So I have decided to leave the Post. 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,'” she concluded.
