MADRID 4 Ene. (EUROPA PRESS) –
Graphic comedian Ann Telnaes has resigned from the staff of ‘The Washington Post’ after the newspaper rejected the publication of a satirical cartoon in which the owner of the newspaper and Amazon, Jeff Bezos, and other media moguls appeared kneeling before Donald Trump with a view to his second term as American president.
“I have spoken with the management and have had productive conversations and some differences about the cartoons I have submitted for publication, but they have never turned me down on a cartoon because of who or what it included, until now,” explained Telnaes, winner of an award Pulitzer, in a message published on social networks.
The ‘Post’s’ Opinion director, David Shipley, has defended the rejection of the cartoon because they do not agree with his “interpretation of the events” and because “the only bias is against repetition”, according to a text published in ‘ The New York Times’.
“Not all editorial decisions are a reflection of an evil force,” explained Shipley, who maintains that he has spoken to Telnaes to ask him to stay. “My decision is based on the fact that we had just published a column with the same topic as the one in the cartoon and that another column on the same topic, a satire, had already been planned,” he noted.
Telnaes’ publication includes the sketch of the rejected cartoon, which includes Bezos, the founder and owner of Meta, Mark Zuckerberg; the owner of the ‘Los Angeles Times’, Patrick Soon-Shiong, and Disney mascot, Mickey Mouse, making gestures of adoration to Trump and handing them bags of money.
“He criticizes the billionaire technology and media executives who are doing everything they can to curry favor with Trump,” Telnaes stressed.
“Sometimes cartoons have been rejected or revised, but never because of the intrinsic point of view of the cartoon. It is a fundamental and dangerous change for a free press,” he stressed.
Telnaes won the prestigious Pulitzer Prize for Illustrated News and Commentary in 2001, while working for the Los Angeles Times, and was a finalist in that same category in 2022. She was also awarded the Reuben Award from the National Society of Graphic Humorists in 2017. thus becoming the first woman to win both awards.