The Washington Post is “confused” after its longtime cartoonist quit, Axios reporter Alex Thompson said Monday on CNN.
Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist Ann Telnaes has left the Post following the paper’s rejection of her artwork, which pitted Amazon founder and Post owner Jeff Bezos against President-elect Trump.
“It shows what a different place the Washington Post is compared to Trump’s first term. The Washington Post, frankly, the first Trump administration was the rocket fuel for the Washington Post. Now you’re seeing a kind of disintegration. It’s not just the decision not to support it. [in the 2024 presidential race] but now this. He’s left a lot of people at the Post and I think this Washington facility is in a very different place,” Thompson said.
Telnaes, who has worked as a Washington Post cartoonist since 2008, announced via Substack that he was quitting after the paper killed his cartoon, which depicted Bezos and other unnamed wealthy businessmen kneeling and holding up bags of money to the incoming president. Mickey Mouse is shown bowing to Trump on the floor next to them.
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Washington Post cartoonist Ann Telnaes has announced her retirement after killing off her cartoon. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
Before Election Day, Bezos stopped the Washington Post’s editorial board from endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris, causing many employees to stop protesting.
On Monday, CNN contributor Brad Todd said, “What would be real courage is, if he quit because he had a cartoon that was banned from publication by his superiors, that would be real courage.”
“You will be watched by journalists everywhere, you will get an award at Columbia for this,” he added. “When Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, all those people gave money to Joe Biden in the last administration, was that the headline of the cartoon? No it wasn’t. It wasn’t. This is a problem of ideas. The Post deserves it.”
CNN anchor Kasie Hunt said earlier in the interview that others featured in the cartoon were Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg, OpenAI’s Sam Altman and Los Angeles Times owner Patrick Soon-Shing, who also stopped his paper from endorsing the presidential candidate. cycle.
In his Substack article, “Why I’m Leaving The Washington Post,” Telnaes said, “I’ve had editorial feedback and productive discussions—and some disagreement—about cartoons I’ve submitted for publication, but in all that time I’ve never had a cartoon die because who or what I have chosen to focus on so far.”
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A CNN panel discussed a cartoon by WaPo cartoonist Ann Telnaes that was killed by the Post, and prompted her to leave the paper. (Screenshot/CNN/AnnTelnaes)
Telnaes described his cartoon, saying, “The cartoon was executed criticizing the big tech executives and the media who were doing everything in their power to favor President-elect Trump.”
Telnaes’ reference to Disney appears to be a dig at the company identified as the cause of ABC News’ recent $15 million settlement with Trump earlier this month.
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In his Substack piece, Telnaes went on to state his belief that the Post deleted the cartoon because of its political point. He wrote, “To be clear, there have been times when drawings have been rejected or revisions requested, but not because of the opinion found in the cartoons. That’s a game changer…and a danger to a free press.”
Fox News’ Gabriel Hays contributed to this report.
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