Former Imagineer Ann Telnaes was awarded a Pulitzer Prize this week following her resignation from the Washington Post over the rejection of a political cartoon depicting President Trump and Mickey Mouse.
Ann Telnaes Wins Pulitzer Prize
According to a new article from Deadline, Telnaes was recognized for “delivering piercing commentary on powerful people and institutions with deftness, creativity – and a fearlessness that led to her departure from the news organization after 17 years.” Other recipients of the award on Monday included the New York Times, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins for his play “Purpose,” and the staff of the Wall Street Journal.
Telnaes began working for the Washington Post in 2008 as an editorial cartoonist following a period as a show designer for Walt Disney Imagineering. She quit her job at the Washington Post earlier this year after one of her political cartoons was rejected. Telnaes described the rejected cartoon further in a post following her resignation, “The cartoon that was killed criticizes the billionaire tech and media chief executives who have been doing their best to curry favor with incoming President-elect Trump.”
A later-revealed sketch draft of the cartoon showed several figures handing bags of money up to now-President Trump, with a colored character clearly meant to be Mickey Mouse bowing on the floor.
In the same post titled, “Why I’m quitting the Washington Post,” Telnaes added “As an editorial cartoonist, my job is to hold powerful people and institutions accountable. For the first time, my editor prevented me from doing that critical job.”
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