Editorial cartoonist Ann Telnaes has left the Washington Post after an editorial cartoon she created was killed, presumably because it pilloried not only the Walt Disney Company, but also assorted billionaires, including Washington Post owner (and Amazon founder) Jeff Bezos.

In a Substack post, which also included a rough for the cartoon in question, Telnaes said that although she had worked for the Post since 2008, this was the first time a cartoon had been killed because of the target.  "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,” she wrote.  "Until now."

The cartoon in question showed Mickey Mouse, representing the Walt Disney Company, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, LA Times publisher Patrick Soon-Shiong, and Bezos bowing to or offering bags of money to a giant Trump-like statue.

The Post had been widely expected to endorse Kamala Harris for President in the recent election, but did not endorse any candidate.  Bezos recently traveled to Mar-a-Lago and met with Trump, and Amazon donated $1 million to the Trump inaugural, as did Facebook parent Meta and OpenAI CEO Altman.

Telnaes pointed to her roles as a member of the Advisory Board for the Geneva-based Freedom Cartoonists Foundation and as a former board member of Cartoonists Rights in explaining the beliefs that led to her decision.  "As an editorial cartoonist, my job is to hold powerful people and institutions accountable," she wrote.  "For the first time, my editor prevented me from doing that critical job.  So I have decided to leave the Post."