WaPo Jumps Further Into Darkness After Refusing to Print Cartoon Critical of Owner The cartoonist has since resigned Scott Dworkin Jan 5 This week, a now-former cartoonist for The Washington Post, Ann Telnaes, says she left the paper after they refused to print a drawing that negatively portrayed owner Jeff Bezos. I know a lot of us are no longer reading WaPo. Some of you even canceled your subscriptions like I did. This news is confirmation that you were right to do so. “My job is to hold powerful people and institutions accountable,” Telnaes wrote. “For the first time, my editor prevented me from doing that critical job.” The cartoon portrays media execs and billionaires, including Bezos, kneeling and presenting cash to a statue of Trump. Telnaes is a Pulitzer Prize-winning artist. Someone whose satire delivered scathing rebukes over the years. And now, thanks to the censorship and pro-Trump bias at WaPo, they’ve lost one of their greatest assets. I still have friends who work at the paper, and some of them do fantastic work—when allowed to do so. Real journalists like those are not the problem. Management is. It has been bad for a while, but WaPo execs made it worse when they halted the endorsement of VP Kamala Harris in October. An editor resigned, and three journalists stepped down from the editorial board over this fact. Former Executive Editor of the paper Martin Baron said it was an act of “disturbing spinelessness at an institution famed for courage.” Ain’t that the truth. A reported 250,000 people canceled online subscriptions in the week after the pulled endorsement. I’m certain that number has increased since then. Bezos later used the paper he owns, to pen a condescending front page op-ed in response. And earlier this week, the Editorial Board reminded us how out of touch they really are, saying “Millions of Americans have stopped following the news, many because they’re certain it will be bad.” Wrong. We didn’t stop following the news. We just stopped following WaPo, because they’re so obviously obeying in advance. From recently advocating for Congressional pay raises, to questioning if “vaccine misinformation is having a moment,” to even suggesting Trump could do a better job than Biden at stopping bird flu. The Post’s slogan is still “Democracy Dies in Darkness.” It sure does. And that darkness is coming from corporate media. Now, the light really does come from independent journalists like myself. I don’t have a billionaire breathing down my neck, telling me what I can and cannot publish. My work is completely funded by our paid subscribers, who I am beyond thankful for. If you can, please support me in this fight against Trump and corporate media, by becoming a paid subscriber today: We will keep shining a bright light on all of this nonsense coming from the Press. And we will never stop. Onward! Scott What do you think about the refusal of The Washington Post to print the cartoon?