Said David Shipley, The Washington Post opinions editor, quoted in "Washington Post Cartoonist Quits After Jeff Bezos Cartoon Is Killed/The cartoon, by Ann Telnaes, depicted the owner of The Post, Jeff Bezos, and other billionaires genuflecting toward a statue of President-elect Donald Trump" (NYT).
Here's the cartoon:
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Banal, which an editorial cartoon cannot be.
It’s impossible to believe in noble or reasonable editorial judgment from a newspaper so nakedly partisan and so willing to support monstrosities such as the lie that Biden is/was “sharp as a tack”
Doesnt he get most of his income from amazon
It's well drawn: the suggestion of Trump from the drape of his clothes, the caricature of Bezos, the collapsed and colorful Mickey Mouse. But the idea is obvious. Still, if it's obvious, why is Shipley publishing 2 columns with the same insight/outrage. Maybe the columns state details — numbers, etc. — and are careful to be fair to the individuals (and not defamatory).
Who are the other characters? Am I supposed to recognize them? And what is that one guy holding — the guy closest to Mickey? It looks like a tube of lipstick. It's hard to notice but the lipstick — or whatever it is — is red. Then Mickey's pants are red. Is he supposed to be the artist who paints Mickey's pants? With lipstick? That confusion isn't good. So subtract that from my above-stated opinion that it's a good cartoon... unless there's something actually brilliant about the lipstick/"lipstick" that I am not getting.
"Too edgy"? Businessmen offering money to politicians? Like that's never happened before.
Just another version of the old trope of the fat capitalist devouring money. The left hasn't had a new idea in decades. A boring and tedious cartoon. If this is typical of her work, I am missing nothing by not subscribing to The Washington Post.
My sense is there are some WaPo staff that are still in a “snit” with Bezos regarding the decision to not endorse a candidate. These children are going to continue to express their displeasure until they get sent to the woodshed or told to clean out their desks.
The Post is better off without her. The problem with left-wing political cartoonists is the same as with left-wing political comedians -- they're boring and obvious w/no sense of sly or subtle humor. Every message is delivered to the audience like a baseball bat across the back of the head.
Doesn’t seem obvious to me. They aren’t genuflecting. They are offering money, for what? Are they seeking favor? Biden passed them over with a medal of freedom, because they didn’t give as much as Soros, so now they are trying with Trump?
Of course, the problem is not the genuflecting. The problem is the object of the genuflection. The cartoonist wants us all to be outraged, as if this is some kind of denouement. The characters are behaving in character. They didn't get to be billion dollar corporations (or individuals) by being stupid in the face of market realities. The cartoonist should do better than simply draw the obvious.
Someone should "re-work" the cartoon to show Soros/Hillary/etc. genuflecting in front of Biden for their meaningless, pathetic "awards".
Silly me, I couldn't identify Bezos or anyone else among the supplicants.
- Krumhorn
Obamacares worth trillions in forward-looking debt and Biden's emoluments with "Loving" bnefits. How progressive.
Ironic timing, with Biden awarding George Soros a Presidential Medal of Freedom for the hundreds of millions donated to Democrats.
I mean, it's not controversial, or funny, or ironic, or threatening ... it doesn't move any reader from a position they aren't already holding.
What's with the mouse? Is that the mouse that Trump just curb-stomped for $16 million for defaming him by accusing him of being a rapist? Because ABCNews certainly isn't ponying up cash to Trump to buy influence with him. They're out to destroy the man.
It just doesn't pass as any kind of a commentary that is unique or informative or provocative.
It's boring. And the editor was correct to send it to the round file. Not everything the dear artist produces is gold.
I guessed Elon Musk and Bill Ackman - two blue eyed billionaires??? Generic Asian political leader putting lipstick on the Trump pig?
You don't piss on the CEO's shoes.
A muddled composition. I think the red lip stick in the hand of the person without a bag of money is in preparation to kiss somebody’s ass.
It appears Mickey is nose down as if it were a Muslim call to prayer. The others are kneeling and offering their cash, but with no context as for what.
"Matt Wuerker, a Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist for Politico, called the decision to kill Ms. Telnaes’s cartoon “spineless,” adding that the storied Post cartoonist Herbert Block, known as Herblock, and Ben Bradlee, a former editor of The Post, were “spinning, kicking and screaming in their graves.”
Sure, they are. Aren't we the pretentious ones, then? Maybe, once she's finished flouncing out the door, she can open up a Substack for herself and publish all her best works - but then she'd have immediate feedback from the marketplace, wouldn't she? How scary.
Who are the other characters?
From left to right: Jeff Bezos, Sam Altman, Mark Zuckerberg, Patrick Soon-Shiong. And Mickey Mouse, obviously. I don't know why Soon-Shiong has a lipstick.
Tulsi sacrificing her makeup for the man, .And who shot Mickey?
I think it's a pretty good cartoon, and of course the fanbase would love it. But the question is, why? If you're not the court jester, how do you think you can mock the man who owns your company and just skate? Why do journalists think they're immune from common sense? Because since Watergate, they generally have been?
I don't know why Soon-Shiong has a lipstick.
Maybe it has something to do with him puckering up.
I'm not surprised the cartoonist quit. Who on God's green Earth is more entitled to deference, wealth, 100% assured publication, and job security than a female (you made read that as "second-wave feminist") cartoonist working for the Washington Post?
Like SNL, they choose their battles wisely.
Never piss off the real dictators.
I don't even get the cartoon. Why are these people offering a huge statue of Trump bags of money? Trump already has bags of money. Why is mickey mouse bowing down? Is that supposed to represent Disney? And it looks weird to have mIckey in color and everyone else B/W.
And then there's the main point. Why the hell should I care if billionaries support Trump instead of the democrats? When did we suddenly start obsessing about Leftwing billionaires and their politics? And then there's the typical hysterical leftwing thought/language. Anyone who supports Trump - the POTUS - is "Genuflecting" toward him. But supporting Harris, is just supporting her.
BTW, hasn't this happened before? Cartoonists that no one cares about quitting because someone didn't like their leftwing take?
I've never liked Wapo editorals or their cartoons. And that goes for the NYT's and almost every MSM paper. First, they all take the same position 90 percent of the time. Second, they're usually badly written and preaching to the choir. And thirdly, who cares? Their opinion isn't anymore valid then yours or mine.
"Why is mickey mouse bowing down?"
And to someone who Disney considers a rapist. Sure seems odd.
Democratic Special Peculiar Liberal Corporations performing human rites for a Green blight and other purposes. Let us bray.
The money is going toward the inauguration. Have all these rich guys doing an awkward Trump dance. A clever cartoon on this topic was possible; she just didn't draw it.
The cartoonist identified everyone in a substack post but did not explain the details. Guessing the bags of money represent contributions to the inaugural festivities. I went with who knows.
I see a depiction of Trump as a Kim Jong Un like figure.
Did WaPo ever depict Biden as Biden now we know truly was?
I like the cartoon. I like that it's black and white and they got a little colorful Mickey in there. I like that they made Mickey a caricature of Islamic faith. That's funny! (Another unspoken idea floating in the editor's head -- do we want to inspire a jihad?)
I like the idea that Disney is in complete capitulation, because the company literally has to give Trump millions and millions of dollars. I think there are a lot of interesting things going on in that cartoon.
Publish!
I think the idea of the cartoon is, "Look at all the tiny billionaires paying tribute to Caesar!"
That's her rebuttal to the argument by some media oligarchs (Bezos, Soon-Shiong), that the media should attempt to be fair and non-partisan in its journalism.
We've had four years of the media being ridiculously obsequious to the former Caesar, Joe Biden. But she doesn't acknowledge that, or even think about it.
She would never draw Biden as a giant Caesar, because (in her subconscious?) she considers Biden to be a little man.
Trump big! All hail Trump! Get down on your stomach, Mickey!
In the Republican party, our leader is big.
In the Democrat party, their leader is vacant, hollow, not there, a disappearing act, a Major Major Major Major, a simulacrum of a president, standing upright to hide the fact that the Party rules us all, in secret. Who is really in charge? Nobody knows.
This is another veiled threat. These liberals love them some Shakespeare. Disgusting.
The best editorial reason to strike it is that it doesnt work for the artist’s stated intentions.
It is supposed to be an anti-Trump cartoon, but it winds up being pro-Trump. Yes, he has made the enemies of the people kowtow to his might.
Reminds me of a 2016 ad MSNBC used to run where they show Trump at a rally saying “you can tell them to go fuck themselves.” Probably had a net effect of converting voters to Trump. Really underestimated the pent up desire in the population to tell ‘them’ exactly that.
I would t be surprised to see it blown up, printed out, framed, and hung in a conspicuous spot in Trump Tower or MAL.
JSM
Trump is our agent. Those billionaires get that, finally.
Well, they are presumably savvy in the ways of Our Democrats. So my guess is they are all kneeling down hoping to be dispensed a Communion Dorito. Mickey dropped his and is down on the ground, rat like, gnawing on it.
My new thought is that Mickey is dead.
Trump got Mickey with a shiv in the ribs.
And all the other billionaires are paying money to avoid the same fate.
Pay tribute or you too will be a colorized corpse.
I think Trump should frame this cartoon and put it up in a bathroom in the White House.
It didn't make Trump look bad enough.
Way, way too boring.
Bezos is the only one smiling - implies he is happy Trump is back?
In the wordy world, editorial cartoonists are expendable scum. That used to be because cartoons couldn't convey nuance and the details of a story. They were too black and white. Now it's probably more that the cartoonists' degrees aren't as prestigious as the rest of the newsroom's.
I don't know about good and bad. I haven't seen an editorial cartoon in a long time. Herblock and Mauldin used to be familiar names decades ago. Later, there was somebody called McNelly and somebody called Ramirez. There was Stamaty years ago and Ted Rall now, but editorial cartoonists aren't famous anymore. None of them are as memorable as Mauldin, who brought WWII home or Herblock, whose crude pictures brought McCarthy and Nixon down (or so we're told).
Nobody really pays attention to newspaper cartoonists (though they still give each other Pulitzers). What are the criteria for deciding what's "good" and what's "bad" when even in their glory days, editorial cartoons were always about giving a simplified, dumbed-down version of politics?
The moneybags are the donations by these creeps to Trump’s inauguration. The idea of Disney/ abc prostrating themselves via Mickey is pretty funny.
I think it is commendable that Bezos, Mickey, and the others are begging for forgiveness.
The NYT thinks this is news. The Boston Globe thinks this is news. The Washington Post has not mentioned it. Her bio page there still says she "creates editorial cartoons for The Washington Post" with a long paragraph listing many awards.
I wonder if ABC News understands what they did when they settled with Trump? Or if they even care?
I would remind you that Trump awarded Rush Limbaugh a Medal of Freedom.
This is simply the universe correcting itself.
They have a responsibility and adapt to the business environment.
I miss Doug Marlette. He knew how to get people furious at his strips. I "knew" him when I was a copyboy at the Charlotte Observer, and he was a nice guy.
Why is Mickey Mouse dead? Why is only one man putting on lipstick? Isn’t that the sort of sexist or homophobic slur WaPo would frown on? Who are all those people?
“Show, don’t tell” is the first rule of political cartoons. Is the editor being honest when he says it’s merely redundant? That doesn’t seem trustworthy. Why not also say it’s badly done and violates their newsroom’s standards on sexism and homophobia?
Mickey isn’t dead; he is kowtowing to Trump. He is the symbol for the Disney/abc media conglomerate.
The cartoonist's appeal to "freedom of the press" seemed strange to me. Since when has "freedom of the press" ever meant freedom from the desires and wishes of the owners of the press that produced the newspaper or content?
Ann Althouse, you may not realize that when you throw in a poll, at least for me, it increases a sense of belonging to a community of kindred spirits. I often pick what seems like an outlier choice, to find that, on Althouse blog, I am in the majority. Homies!
It is kinda cool that Soon-Shiong is another African-American.
Average Trump Genuflector vs Average Kamala Enjoyer
I didn't believe Shipley. If the WaPo cut all their redundant anti-Trump coverage, they'd barely have a newspaper any more.
“We are losing large amounts of money. Your audience has halved in recent years. People are not reading your stuff. I can’t sugarcoat it anymore,”
~Will Lewis, the Washington Post's publisher and CEO
Ann Telnaes, about the reactions she received to a cartoon targeting Ted Cruz:
"Editorial cartoonists are a thick-skinned group; we’re used to getting negative feedback from irate readers telling us we’re idiots and how terrible our cartoons are."
Not so thick-skinned when the negative feedback comes from her side, it would appear.
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