(Sketch of murdered cartoon)
Ann Telnaes posted a note on her Substack page yesterday explaining why she is quitting her job at The Washington Post. The Post refused to publish a cartoon depicting Jeff Bezos, the paper's owner, among other billionaires kneeling and offering their money to a statue of President-elect Donald Trump.
A large number of media outlets have reported on Tenaes' departure, but if you want to read an opinion piece on the matter, let it be this one by Mike Peterson in The Daily Cartoonist entitled"Telnaes is just unemployed, not gone".
As pointed out in a comment in the same article:
"In a moment of supreme irony, the New York Times picked up on the story and published their cartoon. While this is obviously big news (and an opportunity to attack a competitor), it's nice to see them publish an editorial cartoon for once." (The New York Times stopped publishing political cartoons on 1 July 2019).
Although it hasn't even been 24 hours, I have the feeling that I'm too late even to give my opinion. Or not. The question of speed has become relative since I was delighted to embrace CTXT 's slogan-philosophy of"Proud to be late for the latest news".
All of us who dedicate ourselves to this, or try to do so, know that this scenario can present itself to us the day we least expect it, and even several times, and there are only two ways to go: get wet or silently step over the puddle. Ann Telnaes has taken the brave, dignified and very respectable option of jumping hard over the puddle so that it splashes as it should and to whom it should be splashed.
This is not the first time Telnaes has taken a stand. In November 2024 he ironised The Washington Post's slogan with a cartoon "in black" following Jeff Bezos' decision to prevent the paper from calling for a vote for Kamala Harris.
Not every cartoonist is in a position to abandon his or her work, even less so in Spain where opportunities do not flourish, which is why I consider it necessary to applaud any movement such as Telnaes', from whatever position it is made.
Humour in trouble, a collection of cases
Cases of cartoonists who have had problems of some importance because of their cartoons or satirical illustrations. There are also some stories of other people who, without being cartoonists, have got into trouble for sharing them.
