Editorial cartoonist Ann Telnaes
Courtesy of Ann Telnaes
A Washington Put up cartoonist has give up her position on the paper, saying that her bosses blocked publication of a satirical cartoon that depicted billionaires, together with one resembling Put up proprietor Jeff Bezos, kneeling earlier than President-elect Donald Trump.
Ann Telnaes, a Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist, mentioned in a weblog publish Friday that she give up the paper after a drawing was rejected. This was the primary time on the Put up {that a} cartoon was “killed due to who or what I selected to intention my pen at,” Telnaes wrote.
A tough sketch of the cartoon, printed on Telnaes’ Substack weblog, reveals a number of males kneeling earlier than a bigger man sporting a swimsuit and a protracted tie, representing Trump. Telnaes wrote that the likenesses are of Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Los Angeles Instances Writer Patrick Quickly-Shiong, and Bezos. Three of the lads are holding baggage of cash. Additionally included is a drawing of cartoon character Mickey Mouse, representing Walt Disney‘s ABC Information.
Satirical drawing by Washington Put up cartoonist Ann Telnaes, who resigned after it was rejected.
Courtesy of Ann Telnaes
The drawing was rejected by the paper outright, with no strategies for potential adjustments, Telnaes informed CNBC in an e mail.
David Shipley, Washington Put up editorial web page editor, mentioned in a press release that the cartoon was rejected due to its similarity to columns on the paper, not due to who it focused.
“I respect Ann Telnaes and all she has given to The Put up. However I have to disagree together with her interpretation of occasions. Not each editorial judgment is a mirrored image of a malign drive. My determination was guided by the truth that we had simply printed a column on the identical matter because the cartoon and had already scheduled one other column – this one a satire – for publication. The one bias was towards repetition,” Shipley’s assertion mentioned.
The cartoonist’s departure comes amid controversy about how media and company executives have been treating Trump, each earlier than and after the November election.
The Washington Put up reported that Bezos spiked a deliberate endorsement of Trump opponent Kamala Harris by the paper forward of the presidential election. On the Los Angeles Instances, Quickly-Shiong additionally determined that the paper ought to withhold any endorsement within the presidential race, spurring the resignation of a number of editorial board members.
ABC Information, in the meantime, settled a defamation lawsuit with Trump for $15 million, which drew criticism from some media regulation specialists who thought the information group had a powerful case.
Bezos and Zuckerberg, via Meta, deliberate to donate $1 million to Trump’s inaugural fund, the Wall Avenue Journal reported final month, and have been amongst a number of billionaires to fulfill with Trump at his house in Mar-a-Lago since his election win. A number of retailers have reported that OpenAI’s Altman can also be donating $1 million to the inauguration fund.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., weighed in on Telnaes’ resignation on X, saying the cartoon was “value a share”: “Large Tech executives are bending the knee to Donald Trump and it is no shock why: Billionaires like Jeff Bezos like paying a decrease tax charge than a public faculty trainer.”
Telnaes’ departure is the most recent of a number of inside shakeups on the Put up. Writer and CEO Will Lewis took over the paper final yr and has clashed with the newsroom, as reported by NPR. A number of high editors on the paper have left since Lewis took over.
Telnaes received the Pulitzer Prize for editorial cartooning in 2001. She wrote in her weblog that she had labored for the Put up since 2008.
