Washington Post cartoonist quits over rejected Trump-Bezos illustration

 JournalismPakistan.com |  Published: 5 January 2025 |  AFP

Ann Telnaes, a political cartoonist for The Washington Post, has resigned after her cartoon depicting Jeff Bezos and Donald Trump was rejected. This incident raises significant questions about press freedom and editorial independence.

Summary

WASHINGTON- An award-winning political cartoonist for The Washington Post has announced her resignation after a cartoon depicting the newspaper’s billionaire owner groveling before Donald Trump was rejected.

Ann Telnaes posted on Substack on Friday that this was the first time she “had a cartoon killed because of who or what I chose to aim my pen at.” The cartoon — which she included in her post — depicts Amazon founder and Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos, as well as Facebook and Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg and other media and tech moguls, kneeling and holding up bags of money before a massive Trump.

Also shown is a prostrated Mickey Mouse, the symbol of the Disney Company, which owns ABC News. The television network recently reached a $15 million settlement with Trump after he sued for defamation over reporting on his sexual abuse trial in New York.

Telnaes wrote that while previous sketches of hers had been rejected, this was the first time that had happened because of her “point of view.” “That’s a game changer… and dangerous for a free press,” she said. The Washington Post, whose slogan is “democracy dies in darkness,” did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

US media quoted the opinions editor, David Shipley, saying that Telnaes’s work had been rejected only because of “repetition.” “We had just published a column on the same topic as the cartoon and had already scheduled another column — this one a satire — for publication,” he said.

The US media aggressively covered Trump’s chaotic first term, which included two impeachments and ended with his refusal to recognise defeat in the 2020 election — culminating with a mob of his supporters storming Congress.