I appreciate that the Pulitzer Prizes include a category for editorial cartoonists. I've expressed before that the best of them are a cross between court jesters and prophets of biblical incisiveness. This means that they "speak truth to power" with great clarity and at times risk losing their jobs or being muzzled by editors and owners of the news outlets for which they work.
Earlier this year the 2025 Pulitzer winner, Ann Telnaes, chose to leave the Washington Post because a cartoon she produced (above) was rejected. It includes a caricature of the WAPO owner, Jeff Bezos, a gajillionaire who bailed out the financially troubled paper a few years ago, left it alone for the most part, but now has people at the helm who lean Orange. She explains her decision:
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.
What I find interesting is that WAPO acknowledged her Pulitzer win -- after all, it is a prestigious feather in the Post's cap -- but didn't mention why Telnaes left.
She is not the only cartoonist to leave the Post. Brilliant Canadian Michael de Adder didn't have his contract with the Washington Post renewed because of cartoons on the edge and he was let go by the Halifax Chronicle Herald as well. I'm impressed that they aren't willing to compromise their artistic integrity in a time when many voices for justice are being silenced. They would probably both laugh at being described as Joan or John the Baptist but they are voices shouting in the political wilderness..
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