Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist Ann Telnaes has resigned from The Washington Post. She left last week after her editor killed this cartoon she proposed:
The image shows Mark Zuckerberg (CEO of
Meta), Jeff Bezos (Amazon founder, CEO of Blue Origin and WaPo owner) and Sam
Altman (CEO of OpenAI) offering bags of money to the Kleptocrat (who may be a
statue, elevated on a plinth—this is actually a sketch she submitted, not a
finished cartoon). Additionally, LA Times CEO Patrick Soon-Shiong is offering a lipstick and Mickey
Mouse is prostrated at the base of the plinth.
You may
recall that Bezos and Soon-Shiong nixed their respective newspapers’ intent to
endorse Kamala Harris in the presidential election. All of the corporations
have recently donated in the seven figures to the Kleptocrat’s “inauguration”;
they have clearly decided to obey in advance. It’s particularly outrageous that
two of the formerly best newspapers in the country are among the Quislings, but
that’s what happens when billionaires buy media companies as side hustles and
make editorial decisions based on what’s best for their bread-and-butter
revenues.
Telnaes explained her reasons for leaving WaPo on her Open Windows blog. She invited other cartoonists to riff on her rejected theme, and the early responses are pretty good. You should also take a look at her post on why political cartoonists are a critical part of a free press, which is vital for democracy. She wrote this in 2019; it's only become more frightening in the intervening years.
As she
says, they’re the canaries in the coal mine of a democratic society. And the
canaries are coughing.
©2025 Bas Bleu
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