Political cartoonist Ann Telnaes quits rather than compromise her ethics
The Washington Post continues its downward spiral
By Mike Sorrell
Washington Post political cartoonist Ann Telnaes, who began working at the newspaper in 2008, has quit because she was not allowed to publish a cartoon depicting Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos and several other billionaires kneeling in front of a statue of president-elect Donald Trump.
Good for her. Take This Job and Shove It, to borrow the title of a Johnny Paycheck song title from several decades back.
Yesterday, hours after her resignation, Telnaes posted a column on Substack headlined, “Why I’m quitting the Washington Post.” The subhead is, “Democracy can’t function without a free press.”
As she explains below, she is standing on principle.
“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.
“Over the years I have watched my overseas colleagues risk their livelihoods and sometimes even their lives to expose injustices and hold their countries’ leaders accountable. As a member of the Advisory Board for the Geneva based Freedom Cartoonists Federation and a former board member of Cartoonists Rights, I believe that editorial cartoonists are vital for civic debate and have an essential role in journalism.
“There will be people who say, “Hey, you work for a company and that company has the right to expect employees to adhere to what’s good for the company”. That’s true except we’re talking about news organizations that have public obligations and who are obliged to nurture a free press in a democracy. Owners of such press organizations are responsible for safeguarding that free press— and trying to get in the good graces of an autocrat-in-waiting will only result in undermining that 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. I doubt my decision will cause much of a stir and that it will be dismissed because I’m just a cartoonist. But I will not stop holding truth to power through my cartooning, because as they say, ‘Democracy dies in darkness.’
Thank you for reading this.”
Political cartoonists work at a dying trade. Not only have hundreds of newspapers ceased operation during this first quarter of the 21st century, but many of the newspapers that still exist do not employ political cartoonists. That is unfortunate for readers, and, as Telnaes writes, for democracy.
If for no other reason, the bean-counters at newspapers fail to exercise good business sense when they do not employ political cartoonists. Readers love political cartoons, even those readers who do not agree with the opinions expressed. Serious cartoonists – as opposed to the ones who do gags – can boil an issue down to its essence.
There is nothing at all radical or insensitive about the cartoon Telnaes drew about Bezos and his buddies. Reporters, including Washington Post reporters, have written stories about the billionaires who pay fealty to Trump by giving him millions of dollars. But a cartoonist’s pen can poke a hole in pomposity, immorality and the excess and spinelessness of oligarchs better and quicker than a word processor.
The resignation of Ann Telnaes was preceded several days ago by news that Washington Post political reporters Ashley Parker and Michael Sherer have resigned to become staff writers at The Atlantic. Other key Post writers and editors have recently left, as well. The newspaper is in a downward spiral in terms of the quality of its journalism.
The Post has reportedly lost more than 300,000 subscribers in recent months, mainly because Jeff Bezos quashed an editorial endorsement of Democrat Kamala Harris days before the 2024 presidential election. (In past years, The Post has endorsed candidates.) Bezos subsequently gave Trump $1 million to help with his Jan. 20 inauguration.
Ann Telnaes certainly will arise somewhere and continue to hold the powerful accountable.
Telnaes embraces an unofficial motto often uttered decades ago when I was in journalism school: Afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted.