The Washington Post's cartoon team bristles at newspaper's decision not to endorse | Washington Post

The Washington Post's cartoon team has taken some revenge for the paper's decision to forego a formal endorsement of the president with a dark, amorphous image clearly aimed at echoing the slogan “Democracy dies in darkness.” to skewer the newspaper that took over during the tenure of billionaire Jeff Bezos.

The image was published hours after it was announced that Bezos, who has owned the newspaper since 2012, had abandoned a prepared endorsement of Kamala Harris over Donald Trump in the November 5 election.

The cartoon commentary was created by Pulitzer Prize-winning illustrator Ann Telnaes, known for her incisive political depictions.

In 2000, she contributed a picture of then-presidential candidates Al Gore and George W. Bush as a choice between two boring cereal brands.

“We have Gore Bran… and then we have Bush, who was considered quite a lightweight at the time. I had it as Frosted Flake,” she later recalled.

The Post's decision to forgo political endorsements came days after the Los Angeles Times made a similar decision. In both cases, the decision led to editorial upheaval, resignations and canceled subscriptions.

Former Washington Post editor Marty Baron criticized Bezos' decision as “cowardice, a moment of darkness that sacrifices democracy.” Baron said it was an invitation for Trump to “continue to intimidate” the media after he threatened retaliation against anyone who opposed him if he returned to power.

Baron later noted that the newspaper's editorial board had expressed its opinion on the U.S. House and U.S. Senate elections, “but if they think readers can make up their own minds, then sure… maybe they should.” decide not to publish editorials at all.”

“If your philosophy is that readers can make up their own minds about the big issues facing them in this democracy, then don't publish editorials,” Baron said on CNN. “But the fact is they decided not to publish editorials in this one case, 11 days before an election.”

The Associated Press reported that Trump met briefly with executives from Bezos' space exploration company Blue Origin on Friday after his newspaper increased its support for Harris.

The Columbia Journalism Review said the Post's decision not to issue a recommendation amounted to what Yale University history professor Timothy Snyder called “predictive obedience.”

Bezos' post adopted the slogan “Democracy dies in the dark” in 2017. According to the newspaper, Bezos heard it from renowned Post investigative journalist Bob Woodward, who in turn said he read it in a court opinion on a case involving the U.S. Constitutional Amendment calling for a free press.