It looks like the Washington Post, whose owner Jeff Bezos is making nice with the incoming Trump-Vance Administration, is proving their slogan that "Democracy Dies in Darkness."
Bezos, whose influence nixed the papers ready endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris before the November elections, apparently put his foot down on an unpublished editorial cartoon by cartoonists Ann Telnaes which shows billionaire sycophants and Mickey Mouse bowing to the idol of Donald Trump and offering financial tribute at it. Viewers can clearly recognize a caricature of Mr. Bezos in the below piece.
With Bezos apparently instructing his employees at the Post to kill the cartoon, Ms. Telnaes left the position she has held since 2008.
She also penned a piece describing the actions she took. Please read that below.
"I’ve worked for the Washington Post since 2008 as an editorial cartoonist. I have had editorial feedback and productive conversations—and some differences—about cartoons I have submitted for publication, but in all that time I’ve never had a cartoon killed because of who or what I chose to aim my pen at. Until now."
"The cartoon that was killed criticizes the billionaire tech and media chief executives who have been doing their best to curry favor with incoming President-elect Trump. There have been multiple articles recently about these men with lucrative government contracts and an interest in eliminating regulations making their way to Mar-a-lago. The group in the cartoon included Mark Zuckerberg/Facebook & Meta founder and CEO, Sam Altman/AI CEO, Patrick Soon-Shiong/LA Times publisher, the Walt Disney Company/ABC News, and Jeff Bezos/Washington Post owner."
"While it isn’t uncommon for editorial page editors to object to visual metaphors within a cartoon if it strikes that editor as unclear or isn’t correctly conveying the message intended by the cartoonist, such editorial criticism was not the case regarding this cartoon. To be clear, there have been instances where sketches have been rejected or revisions requested, but never because of the point of view inherent in the cartoon’s commentary. That’s a game changer…and dangerous for a free press."
"Over the years I have watched my overseas colleagues risk their livelihoods and sometimes even their lives to expose injustices and hold their countries’ leaders accountable. As a member of the Advisory board for the Geneva based Freedom Cartoonists Foundation and a former board member of Cartoonists Rights, I believe that editorial cartoonists are vital for civic debate and have an essential role in journalism."
"There will be people who say, “Hey, you work for a company and that company has the right to expect employees to adhere to what’s good for the company”. That’s true except we’re talking about news organizations that have public obligations and who are obliged to nurture a free press in a democracy. Owners of such press organizations are responsible for safeguarding that free press— and trying to get in the good graces of an autocrat-in-waiting will only result in undermining that free press."
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. I doubt my decision will cause much of a stir and that it will be dismissed because I’m just a cartoonist. But I will not stop holding truth to power through my cartooning, because as they say, “Democracy dies in darkness”.
"Thank you for reading this."
What has happened at the Washington Post proves again what happens when corporate interests have ownership of the free press and those individuals steer the flow of information in order to advance their own financial well being at the expense of keeping their readers informed.
There were already too many low information/uniformed/historically illiterate voters who participated in the last election.
Look how that worked out with the more uninformed voters siding with Mr. Felon in Chief.
There are rumors that journalists led by Kate Swisher are trying to put an investor group together to buy the Washington Post from Mr. Bezos.
Good. Hope they succeed.
Democracy can not be allowed to die with owners like Jeff Bezos cherry picking what he thinks is newsworthy by putting personal financial security over the need to keep the American People informed.
The sooner he and other corporate interests are bought off and dislodged from owning news organizations, the better.
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