On Cartoonist Resignation by WAPO Media Critic


Article from The Washington Post by Eric Wemple, media critic, 1/6/25

Question answered:  Resignation of WAPO Cartoonist

“Okay, let’s dig into the facts first: Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist Ann Telnaes, a staple of this section, announced her resignation from The Post in a Substack piece on Friday. Her resignation followed the spiking of a cartoon depicting Post owner and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, alongside other billionaires, genuflecting before a statue of President-elect Donald Trump. “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,” Telnaes wrote in a post that prompted much critical commentary of The Post. David Shipley, who leads The Post’s Opinions section, issued a statement saying, “Not every editorial judgment is a reflection of a malign force. My decision was guided by the fact that we had just published a column on the same topic as the cartoon and had already scheduled another column — this one a satire — for publication. The only bias was against repetition.” Without context, Shipley’s explanation sounds as if it comes from left field. But actually: Reducing the duplication of opinions in column after column, video after video, cartoon after cartoon *has* been a steady emphasis of Shipley’s since he took over Post Opinions in September 2022. The section that he inherited was more of a freewheeling place where columnists often wrote off the news, with the frequent result being a number of pieces pegged to a single event and often expressing similar sentiments. He set out to fashion a more curated assortment of opinions with greater topical breadth. Also: Shipley told me last night that he made the decision on the Telnaes cartoon without consulting Bezos or Post Publisher Will Lewis. All that said, I find the explanation for killing the cartoon unconvincing and the decision demoralizing.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2025/01/06/erik-wemple-media-live-chat/