By Tony Norman
The most insightful George Orwell bumper-sticker wisdom on the road these days says the following: “During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act.”
At a time when tech billionaires, morning cable news hosts, editorial boards and other once unshakeable stalwarts of the dissenting spirit have entered into an Olympics of competitive groveling before President-elect Donald Trump, speaking of ‘revolutionary acts’ in such an earnest way sounds increasingly quaint.
While Trump openly bellows whatever imperial fever dreams about Greenland, Canada, the Panama Canal and the Gulf of Mexico visit him in the dark of night, once proud institutional bulwarks rush to prostrate themselves before him in advance of any demand that they do so. Alas, the mainstream media is not immune to this siren-call of cowardice.
Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist Ann Telnaes quit her job at the Washington Post last week because her editors spiked a cartoon in which she lampooned the paper’s owner Jeff Bezos along with several other billionaire sycophants in Trump’s expanding universe of tech-lord oligarchs. It was confirmation that our country has entered a dark period. No one leaves a gig like the Washington Post unless they’re sure that staying would be an act of soul-crushing journalistic compromise.
Telnaes quitting WaPo reminded me of when former Pittsburgh Post-Gazette editorial cartoonist Rob Rogers was shown the door in 2018 because the publisher and the editorial page editor objected to his cartoons as “unfunny” and too relentlessly anti-Trump.
Rogers, a two-time Pulitzer finalist and the winner of just about every industry honor for a career that began in the mid-80s, has forgotten more about humor and editorial cartooning than his former bosses ever knew.
Rob knew it was time to decamp to less Trumpy environs after six cartoons in just over a week were spiked — a sharp and unprecedented change from the norm. He’s now syndicated by GoComics and deals with far fewer editorial headaches.
I asked my old friend and PG colleague to comment on the similarity of his firing with Telnaes’ last week and what it might mean for these times.
“I definitely felt a little bit of deja vu when I read my friend Ann Telnaes’ post on Substack about her decision to resign from the Washington Post after having a Trump cartoon killed,” Rob said in an email.
“Her cartoon was also critical of Jeff Bezos, owner of the Post. Ann was not some rogue operator flaunting the will of the paper. Like me, she worked with editors when cartoons needed to be tweaked for clarity and content. According to Ann, this was the first time she had a cartoon killed because of WHO the target was.”
For its part, WaPo defended its actions as a case of jettisoning a cartoon that was too similar to sentiments expressed by a columnist who, if this excuse is to be believed, beat Ann Telnaes to the sentiment first. Apparently, to avoid redundancy, only one opinion writer or columnist at a time is allowed to express a particular notion. What nonsense!
“Sadly, this is another example of obedience in advance by Bezos and other billionaires trying to curry favor (or minimize animosity with Trump,” Rob wrote. “Editorial cartoonists have become an easy scapegoat for weak-kneed publishers and editors in recent decades. But, when it comes to holding the powerful in check, nothing breaks through with readers like a powerful editorial cartoon. Cartoons are always the most-read feature on an editorial page.”
The drift toward preemptive surrender by many of society’s most powerful individuals and institutions hasn’t gone unnoticed. Following Trump’s reelection victory, the cast of Saturday Night Live, among his most fiercest critics in popular culture, staged a fake appeasement cold open to mollify his vengeful spirit.
After listing only a fraction of the horrible things he’s done, including his attempt to overthrow the 2020 election, the cast cheerfully rewrote its own history of dissent: “We have been with you all along,” a cast member shouted insincerely.
This points to a tactic that might work across the board for Trump’s critics — employ satire and critique that is indirect instead of insisting he’s a fascist. That approach, obviously, didn’t engage the plurality of Americans, including young men of color, who voted for him.
Still, there should always be a place in our news ecosystem for what Ann Telnaes and Rob Rogers do. “The great Washington Post cartoonist Herblock once said, ‘if the prime role of a free press is to serve as critic of the government, cartooning is often the cutting edge of the criticism,’” Rob wrote.
“Herb would be dismayed and outraged at the behavior of the management at the newspaper he loved so much.”
There’s nothing new about the owners of once swaggering media operations kowtowing to power because of financial conflicts of interest or opportunism. Still, the breadth of this cowardice and mendacity has never been so disruptive to the functioning of American democracy.
“Ann Telnaes will continue to create powerful, funny and insightful work,” Rob said in closing. “She will be fine. I can’t say the same for the state of the free press in this country.”
Tony Norman is an award-winning columnist, editorial writer and feature writer who wrote for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette from 1988 to 2022 where he spent a lot of time musing on the intersection of politics and culture. Tony is easily aggravated by injustice and bad-faith argumentation and enjoys venting in polysyllabic terms his critics find either endearing or exasperating.
JimboXYZ says
Democracy died when the Democrats made their move in 2019 to gain power, it’s been going on for 5+ years. Seems like “woke” is finally woke to Biden-Harris. Amazing, Trump warned of the California arson back in 2024 too. How could Biden-Harris be so wrong about everything across the board ? How can we ever thank them enough for the misery they have caused ? And they hand out Medals of Freedom to each other for ruining more lives in their final days.
Laurel says
Like the wealthy oligarchy, the media is behaving like crabs trying to get to the top of the bucket to become Big Brother’s state media.
Never thought l would see this in the United States of America.
I wish many fellow Americans would just step back, look at this for what it is, remember our past history and what it meant to them to have freedom of speech, freedom of thought, and the free press. The people who support this would not have done so, even a decade ago.
Sherry says
Vive La Revolution of “Truth Tellers”!
Pogo says
@Tony Norman (and FlaglerLive)
Thank you and bless you.
Los Angles is a preview, metaphorically, for what is about to engulf this country– and the entire planet.
Pig Farmer says
WELCOME TO AMERICA
WHERE IF YOU’RE BORN WEALTHY, YOU CAN
BE EPSTEIN’S WINGMAN, PARTY WITH DIDDY,
FILE FOR BANKRUPTCY SIX TIMES,
SEXUALLY ASSAULT WOMEN, GET IMPEACHED TWICE,
BE CONVICTED OF THIRTY-FOUR FELONIES
TRY TO OVERTURN THE 2020 ELECTION,
RUN THE LARGEST DISINFORMATION CAMPAIGN
IN US HISTORY – AND STILL BE REWARDED BY BECOMING PRESIDENT… AGAIN.
joe says
And the purges have already begun:
“In an unprecedented move, top incoming Trump administration officials are deploying loyalty questionnaires on career civil servants inside the national security advisory body. Questions focused on who bureaucrats voted for in 2024, their political contributions and whether they’ve made social media posts against the incoming administration, per The Associated Press.
Some are preparing to leave the agency when Trump takes office as Mike Waltz, Trump’s pick for National Security Adviser, eyes mass firings.
Waltz told Breitbart last week that he’d already begun the process of clearing out national security staffers from the Biden era and beyond.
“We’re taking resignations at 12:01 and we’re going to put the president’s team in place,” he said. “If anybody out there thinks I’m somehow now going to have a platoon full of Never Trumpers they’re full of it. It’s ridiculous.” – Salon.com
And you voted for Trump because you wanted lower grocery prices and believed his BS that he was going to bring them down????
Laurel says
Jimboxyz: You have still been living in democracy the last five years, and before. Your information is sorely lacking, or downright disingenuous.
Fox Entertainment viewers, here’s how TV works these days: We have three TVs that we use the most, and each one has Roku. The app we view the most tends to be YouTube, which has both really good shows, and junk, depending on what you want to select. The husband mostly views money shows on YouTube TV #1, which provides many money shows to select from. We both tend to view growing plants, how to fix things, recipes and interviews on YouTube TV #2, which promotes those channels. I like to watch landscaping and cat stuff on YouTube on TV #3, which gives me many of the same to select from. It’s called algorithms, and algorithms load up your selections with what you want to watch. Our TV #3 does not show me money show selections, and TV #1 does not show me planting selections.
Point being, Fox Entertainment, and MSNBC, etc., only show you want you WANT to see, not all reality that’s out there. They lie, they try to upset you and will do anything to keep you on their channel. They don’t give a shit if they brainwash you as long as you stay tuned, and they make money doing it.
Change the freakin’ channel! Start searching for reality.
Laurel says
The worse he is, the more his followers like him. It’s stunning.
Trump is going to fill his cabinet with mostly incompetent, suck ups. This is very dangerous for our country. Please read the interview with combat veteran, and Senator, Tammy Duckworth: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/sen-duckworth-explains-why-she-says-hegseth-is-unqualified-to-lead-pentagon
This is serious stuff, folks. Pay attention.
Laurel says
This behavior is the very thing our soldiers fought against in WWII. We are turning our backs on their service, their battle wounds and their lives lost by backing this stain on America. It’s time to start watching, and acting, now, before it’s too late. Trump, and his cohorts, want a compliant society, that is incapable of critical thinking, and defying criminal activity. Ger ready to bow down.
Deborah Coffey says
Isn’t Trump amazing…a liar, corrupt, tax cheat, sexual assaulter and completely immoral human being. And, all the people he’s chosen to work with him in his second term meet his exact criteria. Is this why Trump’s dead last on the annual ranking of all Presidents and Joe Biden is 14th…two years in a row?
Jake From State Farm says
And he is your President. You are welcome….
Laurel says
Senator Tammy Duckworth, who lost her legs in combat, has more courage to stand up to this corruption, than the Republican Congress who are scared to death of Donald Trump. True valor is a very small commodity these days.
FlaPharmTech says
No Jake, a huge NO, he is not my president, nor the choice of HALF of our citizens to lead the USA. maga did not win by a mandate. Enjoy your dollop of a victory while it lasts. I feel sorry for you, your misguided faith in the grifter-in-chief. Good luck and riddance.