The Pulitzer Prize board thumbed their noses at Jeff Bezos on Monday by awarding the Pulitzer for illustrated reporting and commentary to the former Washington Post cartoonist who quit the paper after her cartoon was scrapped. Via the Daily Beast:
Ann Telnaes won the award, considered the highest honor in journalism, four months after she revealed that a cartoon showing Bezos and other tech billionaires genuflecting to Donald Trump was killed by the newspaper’s then-opinions editor David Shipley.
The Pulitzer board commended Telnaes 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.” The award recognized largely Trump-focused cartoons from throughout last year.
Telnaes did not respond to an immediate request for comment. The award comes as the Post has gone through months of turmoil over Bezos’ machinations, which has seen top reporters, columnists, and editors leave.
Telnaes wrote in January that the decision to kill her cartoon, which she attributed to its point of view, was a “game changer” that was “dangerous for a free press.” The decision ended her 17-year tenure at the paper, which she joined in 2008.
