It seems that one other high-profile member of The Washington Put up‘s editorial workers 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 below the title “Why I Give up The Washington Put up.”
“There have been a number of articles not too long ago about these males with profitable authorities contracts and an curiosity in eliminating rules making their method 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 Instances writer, the Walt Disney Firm/ABC Information, and Jeff Bezos/Washington Put up proprietor.”
Telnaes wrote that she first joined the Put up 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 appropriately conveying the message supposed by the cartoonist, such editorial criticism was not the case relating to this cartoon,” she continued. “To be clear, there have been cases the place sketches have been rejected or revisions requested, however by no means due to the perspective 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 right here.
Telnaes is the newest journo to depart the Bezos-owned newspaper. Earlier than the election, three Put up journalists stepped down from the editorial board in protest over the publication’s controversial resolution to not endorse a presidential candidate, with issues that it was a method 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 develop into second-highest rating chief of the New York Instances Washington bureau.
On the New York Instances DealBook Summit in NYC final month, Bezos mentioned he will not be the very best proprietor for the paper from the angle of “the looks” of battle of curiosity, however defended the choice to not assist a candidate within the Put up’s editorial pages.
“The pluses of doing this had been very small and [endorsements] added to the perceptions of bias if information media are going to attempt to be goal and unbiased,” Bezos mentioned, including that media “is affected by a disaster of belief.”
It ought to behave like a “voting machine. They should depend the votes precisely and folks should consider 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 resolution. I’m pleased with this resolution.”
Bezos then went on to acknowledge that “I’m a horrible proprietor for the Put up from the perspective of the looks of battle … In all probability 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.”
