Pulitzer-winning cartoonist quits Washington Post after paper refused to publish her satire on Bezos

Pulitzer award-winning editorial cartoonist Ann Telnaes announced that she is resigning from her position at The Washington Post after the American newspaper refused to publish a satirical cartoon depicting the owner of the outlet, Jeff Bezos. The cartoon showcased the Amazon founder along with other media and technology barons – kneeling before US President-elect Donald Trump as he prepares for his second bid to the White House.

“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,” Telnaes wrote on Friday in a statement she shared on Substack. Meanwhile, in a separate statement, Washington Post’s Opinion Editor David Shipley defended the newspaper’s decision against Telnaes’s cartoon.

He said that the outlet disagreed with her “interpretation of events” and that “the only bias was against repetition”. “Not every editorial judgment is a reflection of a malign force,” said Shipley, whose statement added that he had spoken with Telnaes and asked her to reconsider leaving. “My decision was guided by the fact that 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.”

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What was the cartoon in question?

In the substack post, Telnaes shared a rough draft of the cartoon she intended to publish in the newspaper. The cartoon portrayed Bezos, who founded Amazon before buying the Post, Mark Zuckerberg, Los Angeles Times owner Patrick Soon-Shiong and Walt Disney Co. mascot Mickey Mouse, kneeling in front of Trump with bags of money.

“The cartoon … criticizes the billionaire tech and media chief executives who have been doing their best to curry favour with … Trump,” Telnaes 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.”

“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 added.

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It is pertinent to note that the cartoonist announced her resignation, less than three months after the Post and Bezos faced withering backlash over the outlet’s decision to prevent its editorial team from publishing an endorsement of Kamala Harris before the 2024 US presidential elections.

Telnaes won the prestigious Pulitzer for her illustrated reporting and commentary in 2001. Interestingly, she was working for the LA Times at that time. She was also a finalist in the same category in 2022 when she was working for the Washington Post. She also received the National Cartoonists Society’s Reuben Award in 2017, becoming the first woman to win both awards.