A long-time cartoonist for The Washington Post has resigned after she said her latest cartoon was blocked. Ann Telnaes, who had worked at the paper for 16 years, said she has never had a cartoon scrapped due to its controversial subject matter. She criticized her former employer, calling the decision to pull the cartoon a “danger” to a free press.
In a Substack post, Telnaes shared a rough draft of the cartoon that she said criticized billionaire tech and media executives “who have sought to curry favor with President-elect Trump.”
The cartoon depicted figures kneeling at Trump’s feet with money bags, including The Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Los Angeles Times owner Patrick Soon-Shiong and Mickey Mouse, the corporate mascot of Disney and parent company of ABC.
Telnaes wrote that while cartoons are sometimes rejected or revised, this was the first time her editor prevented her from holding powerful people accountable.
“That’s a game changer… and dangerous for a free press,” she said. “As an editorial cartoonist, my job is to hold powerful people and institutions accountable. For the first time, my editor prevented me from doing that critical job. So I have decided to leave the Post.”
In response, the Post’s opinions editor, David Shipley, said the paper had recently published a column on the same topic and had already scheduled another related column.
Shipley explained that the request to change the cartoon’s focus was due to the repetitiveness of coverage on tech billionaires’ meetings with and donations to Trump following his election. He added that he had asked Telnaes to reconsider her resignation.
This incident comes amid growing tension within the newsroom. In October, The Washington Post canceled a planned endorsement of Democratic presidential candidate Vice President Kamala Harris, a decision reportedly influenced by Bezos. The move led to the resignation of several high-profile writers.
According to media reporter Oliver Darcy, The Washington Post is also expected to lay off dozens of employees in the coming week. The latest round of layoffs follows hundreds of voluntary buyouts in 2023 and dozens of layoffs in September 2024.
Last year, the paper’s publisher outlined its financial struggles, revealing that The Post had lost $77 million the previous year and had seen its audience drop 50% since 2020. The publisher described the paper as “being in the hole,” reflecting broader trends in the journalism industry amid a decline in subscribers and viewership in the digital age.
