Washington Post cartoonist resigns over depiction of newspaper owner Bezos kneeling before Trump

Pulitzer Prize laureate and cartoonist Anne Telnes resigned from the Washington Post because they did not publish her caricature of the owner of the publication, Jeff Bezos, standing with a bag of money on his knees in front of a monument to the president-elect of the United States, Donald Trump .

CNN writes about this.

In addition to Bezos, the cartoon depicts Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman kneeling, handing bags of cash to a statue of Donald Trump. Also standing next to them are Los Angeles Times owner Patrick Soon-Shiong and Mickey Mouse — the corporate symbol of the Walt Disney Company, which owns the ABC News channel.

According to the cartoonist herself, the cartoon «critics the billionaire techies and media executives who are doing everything they can to curry favor with President-elect Trump».

Jeff Bezos never wanted this cartoon to become public.

He killed it, and as a result, pulitzer prize editorial cartoonist Ann Telnaes quit.

Make sure everyone sees this cartoon. pic.twitter.com/hrvdGeowGO

— Aaron Parnas (@AaronParnas) January 4, 2025

Telnes worked at WP since 2008, and, according to her, during that time she had «some disagreements» with the editors. But until now, they say, «none of my caricatures has been rejected because of who or what I directed my pen at». She condemned the newspaper's refusal to publish her image, calling it a “game changer” and “dangerous to a free press”.

Meanwhile, WP opinion editor David Shipley said he respects Telnes but disagrees with «her interpretation of events». According to him, they did not agree to publish the caricature, because they had already published one column on the same topic, and another was planned.

«The only prejudice was to prevent repetition», — he said.

The Association of American Editorial Cartoonists accused the newspaper of «greedy censorship» and “political cowardice”. There they called on other cartoonists to complete the Telnes sketch and publish it online as a show of solidarity.

Recall that Jeff Bezos' Amazon company, which also owns the Washington Post newspaper, and Mark Zuckerberg's Meta company are among those who have allocated funds for Trump's inauguration. Yes, Meta donated $1 million for it.