Editorial cartoonist Anne Ternes
Courtesy of Anne Ternes
A Washington Post cartoonist has resigned from his position at the paper in a satirical satire depicting billionaires, including a lookalike of Post owner Jeff Bezos, kneeling before President-elect Donald Trump. He said his superiors prevented him from publishing the manga.
Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist Anne Ternes said in a blog post Friday that she quit the paper after her drawings were rejected. It was the first time in the Post that “a comic was canceled because of who or what I chose to point my pen at,” Ternes wrote.
A rough sketch of the cartoon, published on Telnaes’ Substack blog, shows several men kneeling in front of a large man wearing Trump’s signature suit and long tie. Ternaes writes that the similarities are: meta platform CEO Mark Zuckerberg, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Los Angeles Times Publisher Patrick Soon-Shiong, and Bezos. Three of the men are carrying bags containing money. Also includes a picture of the cartoon character Mickey Mouse. walt disneyABC News.
Washington Post cartoonist Anne Ternes resigned after being rejected for her cartoon.
Courtesy of Anne Ternes
The drawing was rejected outright by the paper, with no suggestions for possible changes, Ternas told CNBC via email.
David Shipley, editor of the Washington Post’s editorial page, said in a statement that the cartoon was rejected because of its similarity to the paper’s column, not because of who it was targeting. .
“I respect Ann Ternas and everything she has given the Post, but I have to agree with her interpretation of events. All editorial judgments are malicious. It doesn’t reflect power. My decision was guided by the fact that we had just published a column “on the same theme as the cartoon, and had already published another column (this one satirical). , but the only prejudice was against repetition,” Shipley’s statement said.
The cartoonist’s resignation comes amid controversy over how the media and corporate executives treated President Trump before and after the November election.
The Washington Post reported that Bezos has ramped up the paper’s planned support for Trump’s opponent, Kamala Harris, ahead of the presidential election. At the Los Angeles Times, Mr. Soon-Shiong also decided that the paper should withhold any support in the presidential election, prompting the resignation of several editorial board members.
Meanwhile, ABC News settled a defamation lawsuit with Trump for $15 million, drawing criticism from some media law experts who believe the news organization has a strong case.
The Wall Street Journal reported last month that Bezos and Zuckerberg, through Meta, planned to donate $1 million to President Trump’s inaugural fund, and that since his election victory, Trump at Mar-a-Lago He is one of several billionaires to meet with Trump at his home. Multiple media outlets reported that OpenAI’s Altman also contributed $1 million to the inaugural fund.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts weighed in on Ternas’ resignation over And it’s no wonder why: Billionaires like Jeff Bezos’ pay a lower tax rate than public school teachers. ”
Ternaes’ resignation is the latest of several shakeups within the post. Publisher and CEO Will Lewis took over the paper last year and clashed with the newsroom, NPR reported. Several of the paper’s top editors have left since Mr. Lewis took over.
Ms. Ternas won the Pulitzer Prize for editorial cartooning in 2001. She blogged that she had worked for the Post since 2008.
