It seems that one other high-profile member of The Washington Post‘s editorial employees has left the paper: Cartoonist Ann Telnaes, who’s been on the outlet for 16 years, introduced through Substack Friday that she was quitting after the brass killed her newest illustration that includes president-elect Donald Trump.
“The cartoon that was killed criticizes the billionaire tech and media chief executives who’ve been doing their finest to curry favor with incoming President-elect Trump,” the Pulitzer-Prize successful cartoonist wrote on Substack beneath the title “Why I Give up The Washington Publish.”
“There have been a number of articles just lately about these males with profitable authorities contracts and an curiosity in eliminating laws making their technique to Mar-a-lago,” she wrote. “The group within the cartoon included Mark Zuckerberg/Fb & Meta founder and CEO, Sam Altman/AI CEO, Patrick Quickly-Shiong/LA Occasions writer, the Walt Disney Firm/ABC Information, and Jeff Bezos/Washington Publish proprietor.”
Telnaes wrote that she first joined the Publish in 2008 as an editorial cartoonist and has had “editorial suggestions and productive conversations—and a few variations—about cartoons I’ve submitted for publication, however in all that point I’ve by no means had a cartoon killed due to who or what I selected to goal my pen at. Till now.”
“Whereas it isn’t unusual for editorial web page editors to object to visible metaphors inside a cartoon if it strikes that editor as unclear or isn’t accurately conveying the message meant by the cartoonist, such editorial criticism was not the case concerning this cartoon,” she continued. “To be clear, there have been situations the place sketches have been rejected or revisions requested, however by no means due to the standpoint inherent within the cartoon’s commentary. That’s a sport changer…and harmful for a free press.”
She included a “tough of the cartoon killed” in her Substack column. You may learn her full column here.
Telnaes is the newest journo to depart the Bezos-owned newspaper. Earlier than the election, three Publish journalists stepped down from the editorial board in protest over the publication’s controversial determination to not endorse a presidential candidate, with issues that it was a manner for Bezos to placate Trump. Greater than 200,000 readers additionally canceled their digital subscriptions.
A number of extra staffers have since departed, together with managing editor Matea Gold, who’s set to grow to be second-highest rating chief of the New York Occasions Washington bureau.
On the New York Times DealBook Summit in NYC last month, Bezos stated he will not be the perfect proprietor for the paper from the attitude of “the looks” of battle of curiosity, however defended the choice to not assist a candidate within the Publish’s editorial pages.
“The pluses of doing this have been very small and [endorsements] added to the perceptions of bias if information media are going to attempt to be goal and impartial,” Bezos stated, including that media “is affected by a disaster of belief.”
It ought to behave like a “voting machine. They need to depend the votes precisely and other people need to imagine that they depend the votes precisely.”
“Not all of it’s the media’s fault,” he continued. “However the place we will do one thing we must always … We made this determination. I’m happy with this determination.”
Bezos then went on to acknowledge that “I’m a horrible proprietor for the Publish from the standpoint of the looks of battle … Most likely not a single day goes by the place some Amazon govt or Blue Origin govt or some Bezos Earth Fund chief isn’t assembly with a authorities official someplace. And so there are at all times going to be appearances of battle.”
