David's Defense

The Washington Post's Opinion editor, David Shipley, on Friday defended spiking a cartoon critical of the newspaper’s owner, Jeff Bezos, telling colleagues in a memo that he believes he "made a sound editorial decision."

In the lengthy memo, obtained by Status and published in its entirety below, Shipley said he chose not to run the cartoon, which was drawn by Pulitzer Prize-winning artist Ann Telnaes, because it too closely mirrored a previously published column and another piece that was already in the works.

Further, Shipley said he "did not feel the cartoon" that Telnaes had drawn "was strong." But he expressed regret for not working with Telnaes to improve the cartoon for possible publication.

The cartoon in question called out Bezos and other business leaders for kowtowing to Donald Trump ahead of the January 20 inauguration.

In a note posted on Substack last week announcing her resignation from The Post, Telnaes indicated that she felt she had been censored for taking a shot at the Amazon and Blue Origin founder.

“I’ve worked for the Washington Post since 2008 as an editorial cartoonist,” Telnaes wrote. “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. Until now.”