Kissing The Ring

A cartoon in solidarity with Ann Telnaes

The spiked cartoon — now more famous than it ever would have been had WaPo just run it in the first place.

This week, many cartoonists have stood in solidarity with Ann Telnaes after her resignation in protest after the Washington Post refused to run a cartoon depicting the slew of tech and business billionaires (including the paper's owner, Jeff Bezos) genuflecting to Trump, having all donated millions to his inauguration fund. The lie given for killing the cartoon was woeful. As Jack Ohman’s You Betcha! put it, “No one has crafted a less-effective excuse for not running a cartoon, ever, one time.”

In the ensuing days, many have done their own versions of the cartoon (some even used the theme as a jumping-off point for a different execution of the idea.) Either way, it’s something I hope we continue paying attention to despite the ever-increasing list of distractions —taking Greenland by force, setting Cybertrucks on fire, etc.

Steve Brodner has collected some of the tribute cartoons here, and Ann has posted some more on her own Substack here.

For what it’s worth, here is my contribution. Please subscribe to Ann’s substack here, and support independent cartoonists.

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