By Jon Passantino and Brian Stelter, CNN
Pulitzer Prize winning cartoonist Ann Telnaes announced Friday she had resigned from the Washington Post after the newspaper refused to publish a satirical cartoon depicting billionaire Post owner Jeff Bezos on bended knee in front of president-elect Donald Trump
Talnaes, who had been with The Post since 2008, wrote in a Substack post announcing her resignation that, “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.”
The cartoon depicted Bezos, Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg and OpenAI chief Sam Altman on their knees, handing over bags of cash to a statue of Trump next to a lipstick-holding Los Angeles Times owner Patrick Soon-Shiong and bowing Mickey Mouse.
Talnaes said the cartoon “criticizes the billionaire tech and media chief executives who have been doing their best to curry favor with incoming President-elect Trump,” satirizing “these men with lucrative government contracts and an interest in eliminating regulations making their way to Mar-a-lago.”
The Post’s refusal to run the cartoon, Talnaes said, was a “game changer…and dangerous for a free press.”
In a statement Saturday, The Association of American Editorial Cartoonists condemned The Post’s decision, accusing the newspaper of “craven censorship” and “political cowardice.”
“Editorial cartooning is the tip of the spear in opinion, and the Post’s cowering further soils their once-stellar reputation for standing up and speaking truth to power. We weep for the loss of this once great newspaper,” it said, calling on other cartoonists to finish Telnaes’ sketch and post it online in a show of solidarity.
