Paper has been pilloried for what some call ‘anticipatory obedience’ in preparation of a new president next year

The Washington Post’s cartoon team has taken a measure of revenge on the newspaper’s decision to avoid making a formal presidential endorsement with a dark formless image clearly designed to skewer the “Democracy Dies in Darkness” slogan that the outlet adopted during billionaire Jeff Bezos’s ownership.

The image was published hours after it was revealed that Bezos, who has owned the paper since 2012, had pulled the plug on a prepared endorsement of Kamala Harris over Donald Trump in the 5 November election.

The cartoon commentary was created by Pulitzer prize-winning illustrator Ann Telnaes, who is known for her incisive political representations.

    • @[email protected]
      7•2 hours ago

      The case for Donald Trump is “I erroneously think the economy used to be better? I know that he has made many ominous-sounding threats about mass deportations, going after his political enemies, shutting down the speech of those who disagree with him (especially media outlets), and that he wants to make things worse for almost every category of person — people with wombs, immigrants, transgender people, journalists, protesters, people of color — but … maybe he’ll forget.”

    • @PugJesusEnglish
      31•6 hours ago

      Embarrassingly enough, I like this country. But everything good about it has been the product of centuries of people who had no reason to hope for better but chose to believe that better things were possible, clawing their way uphill — protesting, marching, voting, and, yes, doing the work of journalism — to build this fragile thing called democracy. But to be fragile is not the same as to be perishable, as G.K. Chesterton wrote. Simply do not break a glass, and it will last a thousand years. Smash it, and it will not last an instant. Democracy is like that: fragile, but only if you shatter it.

      Humor columnist hits hard.

      • @[email protected]English
        19•6 hours ago

        I’m just a humor columnist. I only know what’s happening because our actual journalists are out there reporting, knowing that their editors have their backs, that there’s no one too powerful to report on, that we would never pull a punch out of fear. That’s what our readers deserve and expect: that we are saying what we really think, reporting what we really see; that if we think Trump should not return to the White House and Harris would make a fine president, we’re going to be able to say so.

        That’s why I, the humor columnist, am endorsing Kamala Harris by myself!

        That too. More courage than Bezos would ever muster.

        • @dhorkEnglish
          8•6 hours ago

          Can I subscribe just to her?

          • Flying Squid
            8•5 hours ago

            You may very well be able to soon. But it will be to her Substack.

    • sarcasticsunrise
      12•6 hours ago

      This pregnant woman has bigger balls than Bezos, what a fuckin legend