Washington PostCartoonist Quits Over Rejected Sketch of Trump and Bezos
Ann Telnaes said the editorial decision prevented her from being able to “hold powerful people and institutions accountable.”
by Rhea Nayyar 
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In November 2023, Shipley reviewed and approved conservative-leaning illustrator Michael Ramirez’s “Human Shields,” a contentious cartoon that many readers considered to considered to depict a racist caricature of Palestinians. The public outcry against Ramirez’s cartoon was so strong that Shipley removed it from the website, writing in an editor’s note that “the reaction to the image convinced me that I had missed something profound, and divisive, and I regret that,” and publishing letters from readers instead.
Hyperallergichas reached out to Shipley for comment.
The Association of American Editorial Cartoonists (AAEC) lambasted thePost‘s decision to refrain from publishing Telnaes’s recent cartoon in a statement accusing the periodical of “craven censorship in bowing to a wannabe tyrant.”
“Editorial cartooning is the tip of the spear in opinion, and the Post’s cowering further soils their once-stellar reputation for standing up and speaking truth to power. We weep for the loss of this once great newspaper,” the AAEC said before inviting other cartoonists to finish Telnaes’s drawing in solidarity. Telnaes published a select few in a follow-up Substack entry.
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