01/05/2025
Image credit: Ann Telnaes
If you don’t already know, Ann Telnaes, who drew this draft cartoon, has quit her job as cartoonist at Washington Post. Her editor killed the cartoon because it depicts Jeff Bezos among other major executives like Disney and Open AI kissing the ring of Trump. Ann put truth over her career.
I met Ann Telnaes in San Francisco in 2014 when I won the Locher Award for student editorial cartooning. She was one of the professional cartoonists at the convention there who made a point to talk to me, a freshly graduated college student. Her kindness and quick wit left an impression.
Editorial cartooning and satire has long been a bastion defense of free speech - the most crucial and powerful freedom Americans and free nations have, yes even more powerful than the 2nd Amendment. An image can convey peacefully and non-violently a message bullets never could. When the powers that be and those who serve them put profits and protecting image over people and the truth, that is a signal that democracy is threatened and turning into something entirely else from the inside out: oligarchy or worse.
And yes, I’ve been told there’s a time and a place to share your opinions. I firmly believe that time and place is here and now.
A person is not defined by their success, accolades, awards, how much money they earned, or how many companies they started. At the risk of sounding Bibical, a person is defined by what they are willing to sacrifice to stay true to their principles and beliefs. I applaud Anne for having the courage to put her beliefs in freedom of speech over keeping her job.
Shame on Bezos and shame on the Washington Post. Greed and fear of consequences by those “in charge” will always be their own worst enemy and has a way of eventually being its own undoing. Anne just drew what she saw.
