Washington Post Cartoonist Quits After Drawing Bezos, Trump Joined By Other Billionaires

Oh The Washington Post The cartoonist has quit his role at the paper, saying his bosses have stopped publishing a satirical cartoon depicting billionaires, including a Post owner. Jeff Bezoskneeling before the President-elect. Donald Trump.

Ann TalensThe Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist said in a blog post Friday that he Leave the paper After the drawing is rejected. It was the first time in the Post that a cartoon was “killed because of who or what,” Tillens wrote.

A rough sketch of the cartoon, published on Telnaes’ substack blog, shows several men in suits and long ties, kneeling before a large man representing Trump. Talnis wrote that there are analogies. Meta platforms CEO Mark ZuckerbergOpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Los Angeles Times Publisher Patrick Soon-Shiong, and Bezos. Three men have bags of money. Also included is a drawing of the cartoon character Mickey Mouse, representing Walt DisneyABC News.

Talens told CNBC in an email that the drawing was rejected outright by the paper, with no suggestions for possible changes.

Washington Post editorial page editor David Shipley said in a statement that the cartoon was rejected because of its similarity to the newspaper’s columns, not because of who it targeted.

“I respect Ann Tillens and everything she gave to The Post. But I must disagree with her interpretation of events. Not every editorial decision reflects malice. My decision was guided by the fact that We had just published a column on the same subject as the cartoon and had already set up another column – this one was a satire – the only bias for publication.” Shipley’s statement said.

The cartoonist’s departure comes amid controversy that media and corporate executives Treating Trump.Before and after the November elections.

gave The Washington Post Reported that Bezos said Planned endorsement of anti-Trump Kamala Harris By paper before the presidential election. At the Los Angeles Times, Soon-Shiong also decided that the paper should be. Block any validation. In the presidential race, encouraged the resignation of several editorial board members.

Meanwhile, ABC News settled a defamation suit with Trump. $15 millionwhich drew criticism from some media law experts who believed the news organization had a strong case.

Bezos and Zuckerberg plan to give $1 million to Trump’s inaugural fund through Meta. The Wall Street Journal reported last monthand are among several billionaires who have visited Trump at his home in Mar-a-Lago since his election victory. Multiple outlets have reported that OpenAI’s Altman is as well. 1 million dollar donation In the opening fund

Sen Elizabeth WarrenD-Mass. I weight On Telnaes’ resignation at X, saying the cartoon was “worth a share”: “Big tech executives are kneeling before Donald Trump and it’s no wonder why: Billionaire public school teachers like Jeff Bezos prefer to pay a lower tax rate than

Telnaes’ departure is the latest of several internal changes at the post. Publisher and CEO Will Lewis took over the paper last year and clashed with the newsroom, as Reported by NPR.. Several of the paper’s top editors have left since Lewis took over.

Telnaes won the 2001 Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning. She wrote in her blog that she has been working for the post since 2008.