Cartoon / Meme

Cartoon Kowtowing

by

Article in Columbia Journalism Review by Jon Alsop, 10/10/25

Headline:  “Moderating Content”

Subhead:  “What the genuflection of billionaires means for the press.”

“Before Christmas, Ann Telnaes, an editorial cartoonist at the Washington Post, submitted a drawing that depicted four billionaire media and tech executives and one mouse genuflecting before Donald Trump, shown standing on a garlanded dais. The cartoon, Telnaes wrote last weekend, was inspired by recent reports of “men with lucrative government contracts and an interest in eliminating regulations making their way to Mar-a-Lago” to visit Trump in the wake of his election win in November.

“. . .Meta is not the news media, but its latest policy change will clearly have ramifications for our industry. (For starters, many newsroom fact-checking initiatives have received financial support from Meta, the withdrawal of which is unlikely to be good for their free speech. . .”

https://www.cjr.org/the_media_today/bezos_zuckerberg_altman_soon-shiong_billionaires_media_telnaes.php

On Cartoonist Resignation by WAPO Media Critic

by


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/

News Coverage – Look Out Below!

by

Article in The Hill by Filip Timotija. 12/7/24

Headline: “Jon Stewart slams media speculation of Trump presidency”

“. . . Right before interviewing Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) during the episode, Stewart knocked news coverage of Trump’s transition and argued that the country has been through a ‘tumultuous’ year.

“ ‘We appear to be in a transitional period where we are not sure about whether the ground we are standing on is solid, although the news media seems convinced that we are the Road Runner and the Coyote, and the Coyote has run over the cliff, and we just looked down and realized there’s nothing under our feet, and now we are plunging to our deaths,’ Stewart joked in reference to the Looney Tunes animated characters.

“ ‘Because the news media is always very circumspect,’ he added.”

https://thehill.com/blogs/in-the-know/5028055-jon-stewart-media-speculation-trump/

Bought the Election, Next All the Media?

by

R. Crumb

A real knee-slapping “joke”.

Article in The Hill by Filip Timotija, 11/23/24

Headline:  “Donald Trump Jr., Elon Musk joke about purchasing MSNBC”

It started with Trump Jr., President-elect Trump’s oldest son, sharing a meme about MSNBC being up for sale. Trump Jr. quote-tweeted the meme Friday on X and said “Hey @elonmusk I have the funniest idea ever!!!”

“How much does it cost,” Musk replied.

Musk later responded to the viral interaction, saying the sale would be “the most entertaining outcome,” while suggesting it would be “ironic.”ump Jr. and tech billionaire Elon Musk joked on Friday about purchasing MSNBC.

https://thehill.com/homenews/media/5006095-trump-jr-musk-joke-about-buying-msnbc/

Time to Abandon Media-Ship?

by

World of Cruising photo

Article in ProPublica by Robert Faturechi, Justin Elliott and Alex Mierjeski, 10/3/24

Headline: “Top Execs Exit Trump Media Amid Allegations of CEO’s Mismanagement and Retaliation”

Subhead: “Several people involved with the former president’s company, operator of Truth Social, believe the departures were retaliation following internal complaints about CEO Devin Nunes to the company board. “

“Former President Donald Trump’s media company has forced out executives in recent days after internal allegations that its CEO, former Rep. Devin Nunes, is mismanaging the company, according to interviews and records of communications among former employees.”

“The chief operating officer and chief product officer have left the company, along with at least two lower-level staffers, according to interviews, social media posts and communications between former staffers reviewed by ProPublica. The company, which runs the social media platform Truth Social, disclosed the departure of the chief operating officer in a securities filing Thursday afternoon.”

https://www.propublica.org/article/trump-media-truth-social-executives-ousted-devin-nunes