Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist Ann Telnaes announced that she has quit her position at The Washington Post because her editor killed her cartoon criticizing tech and media billionaires, including Post owner Jeff Bezos.
The rough of the unpublished cartoon shows billionaires and Mickey Mouse, symbolizing Disney, bowing and offering bags of money to Trump, standing atop a pedestal.
Telnaes wrote in a Substack post:
"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.
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. 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."
Telnaes has long been an outspoken advocate for freedom of expression, fighting for the safety and freedom from the persecution of cartoonists worldwide as a member of the Advisory board for the Geneva-based Freedom Cartoonists Foundation and a former board member of Cartoonists Rights.
Now her own freedom of expression has been stifled right here in the United States, as we prepare for a president who has promised to punish those who criticize and oppose him. And our media, much of which is owned by billionaires or corporations with far bigger business interests than mere journalism, are already pre-capitulating.
She wrote, "Democracy can't function without a free press."
"As an editorial cartoonist, my job is to hold 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."