Category Archives: The Contrarian

Substack: The New Free Press

Rough sketch of cartoon killed

Why I’m quitting the Washington Post

Democracy can’t function without a free press

ANN TELNAES

JAN 03, 2025

I’ve worked for the Washington Post since 2008 as an editorial cartoonist. I have had editorial feedback and productive conversations—and some differences—about cartoons I have submitted for publication, but in all that time I’ve never had a cartoon killed because of who or what I chose to aim my pen at. Until now.

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. There have been multiple articles recently about these men with lucrative government contracts and an interest in eliminating regulations making their way to Mar-a-lago. The group in the cartoon included Mark Zuckerberg/Facebook & Meta founder and CEO, Sam Altman/AI CEO, Patrick Soon-Shiong/LA Times publisher, the Walt Disney Company/ABC News, and Jeff Bezos/Washington Post owner. 

While it isn’t uncommon for editorial page editors to object to visual metaphors within a cartoon if it strikes that editor as unclear or isn’t correctly conveying the message intended by the cartoonist, such editorial criticism was not the case regarding this cartoon. To be clear, there have been instances where sketches have been rejected or revisions requested, but never because of the point of view inherent in the cartoon’s commentary. That’s a game changer…and dangerous for a free press.

Over the years I have watched my overseas colleagues risk their livelihoods and sometimes even their lives to expose injustices and hold their countries’ leaders accountable. As a member of the Advisory board for the Geneva based Freedom Cartoonists Foundation and a former board member of Cartoonists Rights, I believe that editorial cartoonists are vital for civic debate and have an essential role in journalism. 

There will be people who say, “Hey, you work for a company and that company has the right to expect employees to adhere to what’s good for the company”. That’s true except we’re talking about news organizations that have public obligations and who are obliged to nurture a free press in a democracy. Owners of such press organizations are responsible for safeguarding that free press— and trying to get in the good graces of an autocrat-in-waiting will only result in undermining that free press.

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. So I have decided to leave the Post. I doubt my decision will cause much of a stir and that it will be dismissed because I’m just a cartoonist. But I will not stop holding truth to power through my cartooning, because as they say, “Democracy dies in darkness”.

Thank you for reading this.

Why The NBA Is Dying


The NBA is losing its grip on America’s attention, and the numbers prove it.

Over the past 20 years, the league has experienced an explosion in three-point shooting, growing from an average of 15.8 attempts per game in 2004 to a staggering 37.5 this season.

Yet, despite the increase in volume, the league’s three-point shooting percentage has remained stagnant, hovering around 35%. This inefficiency from beyond the arc isn’t just a basketball problem—it’s a business problem.

I love basketball. My mother, nicknamed “Mighty Mouse” in high school, earned her scholarship playing for Vanderbilt’s women’s team back when Peabody College was part of the program.

She taught me to love the beauty of the game: the pick-and-roll, the mid-range jumper, the art of the post-up. Today, those fundamentals are gasping for air in a league drowning in three-point attempts.

TV ratings have been declining for years, mirroring the rise of the three-point era. In the 2010-11 season, games on ABC averaged over 5 million viewers.

By last season, that number was barely 1.4 million—a 72% drop. This season, ESPN’s ratings are down another 28%, and TNT’s viewership is flat at best.

It’s not just that teams are shooting more threes. It’s that they’re shooting them at the expense of everything else.

The mid-range game? Dead. The post game? Buried. Even fast breaks often end in players pulling up for a corner three instead of attacking the rim. The obsession with “math” has turned the game into a spreadsheet.

And yet, the math isn’t even working. The league-wide shooting percentage on threes hasn’t budged in two decades. The supposed efficiency of these shots is an illusion when players are chucking them up in record numbers without any meaningful improvement in accuracy.

There’s a simple fix: the return of the inside game. Closer shots increase accuracy, plain and simple. Dominant big men like Shaquille O’Neal and Tim Duncan thrived because they lived in the paint, punishing defenses and drawing fouls.

Re-emphasizing the post game and mid-range play wouldn’t just diversify the offensive landscape—it would make games more engaging and unpredictable.

This isn’t the game my mother played. It isn’t the game I fell in love with. The drama of the NBA—the David versus Goliath battles, the thrill of last-second buzzer-beaters—feels diluted when every possession is a predictable sequence of drive-and-kick to the perimeter.

Fans notice. They’re not just voting with their remotes; they’re walking away. Critics like Shaquille O’Neal and B.J. Armstrong have called the modern game robotic, a monotonous barrage of three-point attempts that sacrifices entertainment for analytics.

This is still basketball, but it’s not the same game. It’s an endless loop of three-point attempts that rarely deliver the payoff they promise.

The NBA doesn’t need to eliminate the three-point shot, but it desperately needs to restore balance.

Until then, fans like me—and the viewers the league depends on—will keep looking elsewhere.

The NBA bet big on the three-point revolution. So far, it’s not a winning shot.

‘The Post’ Bungles Another Manifesto


I used to work at The Washington Post. I was there when Ted Kaczynski, the Unabomber, sent his manifesto to the Post and The New York Times. The decision to publish it was a mistake.

Now, decades later, I’m watching The Post make a different, but equally flawed, decision with Luigi Mangione’s manifesto. Mangione sent his 262-word note to several outlets. The Post obtained it. But they didn’t run it. Instead, they selectively quoted from it, releasing only the parts that aligned with the narrative law enforcement wanted to push.

Why? Because this is what The Post does now. The publication that once prided itself on holding the powerful accountable has become an adjunct of law enforcement.

They’ll never say it outright, of course. They’ll cite ethics, public safety, or journalistic discretion. But I know better. I was there when it started.

I was a cop reporter then in 1995, when Kaczynski demanded his manifesto be published. We didn’t take the decision lightly. It involved heated debates, moral agonizing, and, ultimately, a deference to the FBI.

They wanted us to run it. They believed someone might recognize his ideas, his writing, his voice. We published, telling ourselves we were saving lives. And he was caught — by a brother who read the screed against industrialized society.

But in truth, we crossed a line. It wasn’t our job to help catch Kaczynski. That’s the FBI’s job. Ours was to inform the public, to ask hard questions, to remain independent. Instead, we became a tool. And once you allow that, it’s hard to go back.

I argued we should charge the FBI the cost of a full-page ad, with, at most, a slight discount. But what about when they ask again, I argued.

I was told to go pound sand.

That decision set a precedent, and the Mangione case shows how far we’ve slid. Mangione’s manifesto is no more dangerous than Kaczynski’s was. It’s a critique of the U.S. healthcare system and an admission of guilt. That’s it.

But the public hasn’t seen it in full. Why? Because the FBI doesn’t want it out there, and the Post doesn’t want to anger the FBI.

It’s an unspoken bargain. Journalists need access to investigations to break stories. Law enforcement needs favorable coverage to control the narrative. And so the press, afraid of being cut off, obliges.

The Post isn’t alone in this. Other outlets had the manifesto too, and none published it in full. Ken Klippenstein, an independent journalist, eventually leaked it on his Substack. But by then, the damage was done.

Screenshot

The Post, CNN, The New York Times and others had already framed the story the way authorities wanted.

This isn’t journalism. It’s public relations for the state. When you withhold information, you erode trust. When you selectively quote, you skew the truth. When you defer to the government, you abdicate your responsibility.

The Post I worked for would have published Mangione’s manifesto in full. Not because it’s sensational or because Mangione deserves a platform, but because the public deserves the truth.

Instead, the Post of today carefully curates what it shares, tailoring its coverage to maintain access to the powerful.

Access journalism has hollowed out investigative reporting. It’s not about holding power to account anymore. It’s about keeping your seat at the table.

And law enforcement knows this. Why spend money on ads or press releases when you can use the nation’s most trusted outlets to deliver your message? The Post and others will do it for free.

They’ve forgotten that journalism isn’t supposed to be easy. It’s supposed to be uncomfortable. It’s supposed to challenge, provoke, and question. Instead, they’ve settled for complicity.

This is about more than Mangione. It’s about what happens when the press stops being independent. When we stop asking questions, the public stops getting answers.

And that’s the real danger. The Post I worked for made a mistake in publishing Kaczynski’s manifesto, but at least we acted boldly. Today’s Post plays it safe. They don’t challenge the powerful. They placate them.

And that’s a tragedy—not just for journalism, but for democracy itself.