The Washington Post has a motto “Democracy Dies in Darkness.” It can also die in bright light such as when a Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist’s cartoon showing Post owner Jeff Bezos and other billionaires literally and figuratively paying tribute to incoming President Donald Trump.
The cartoon is Ann Telnaes who wrote on her Substack page:
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.
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.
Go to the link to read it in full.
On social media there are several kinds of reactions:
**The cartoon being nixed reflects how corporate billionaires are kow-towing to Trump and giving Trump millions of dollars before he takes office.
**The cartoon shows Bezos and Washington Post bigwigs have a thin skin and won’t allow criticism of the Post or Bezos and offend Trump.
**She is right to have quit and it’s scandalous that her cartoon was axed.
**What did she expect criticizing her own employer.
What is certain is that media and social media coverage of the banned-by-the-Post cartoon has shined a bright light on this incident. Will there be more of this at more print and broadcast media?
Media Nation’s Dan Kennedy offers this:
The latest self-inflicted blow to The Washington Post has been rocketing around the internet since Friday. Ann Telnaes, a Pulitzer Prize winner whose wickedly funny editorial cartoons have graced the Post’s opinion section since 2008, quit after opinion editor David Shipley killed a cartoon that made fun of billionaires for sucking up to Donald Trump — including Post owner Jeff Bezos.
[…]The rough draft of Telnaes’ cartoon (above) shows Bezos and fellow billionaires Mark Zuckerberg of Meta, Sam Altman of Open AI and Los Angeles Times owner Patrick Soon-Shiong kneeling before a giant statue of Trump. Three are holding bags of money in supplication. I’m not sure what Soon-Shiong is doing, though he appears to be wielding a container of lipstick. Mickey Mouse somehow figures into it as well.Shipley, who was hired in 2022, is trying to do damage control, saying in a statement reported by New York Times media reporter Benjamin Mullin that he was simply engaged in normal editing and believed that the Post was running too much commentary about Trump’s billionaire courtiers.
Telnaes is the latest journo to depart the Bezos-owned newspaper. Before the election, three Post journalists stepped down from the editorial board in protest over the publication’s controversial decision not to endorse a presidential candidate, with concerns that it was a way for Bezos to placate Trump. More than 200,000 readers also canceled their digital subscriptions.
How many more digital subscriptions will they (rightly) lose now?
The post DEMOCRACY DIES IN DAYLIGHT, TOO? AWARD WINNING WASHINGTON POST COLUMNIST QUITS AFTER CARTOON SHOWING BEZOS AND OTHERS PAYING TRIBUTE TO TRUMP IS KILLED appeared first on The Moderate Voice.
