Washington Post takes down Ted Cruz cartoon: Are politicians' kids off limits?
The Washington Post retracted a political cartoon published Tuesday of Ted Cruz and his daughters, saying it was in bad taste, but the artist stands by her sketch, saying the girls are 'fair game.'
U.S. Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) stands on stage with his wife Heidi and their daughters Catherine and Caroline, as he announces his candidacy for president during an event at Liberty College in Lynchburg, Virginia, March 23, 2015. Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz blasted the Washington Post for briefly posting an editorial cartoon on its website depicting his young daughters as monkeys and criticizing him for featuring them in the political area. Cruz, a U.S. senator representing Texas, quickly responded with a campaign fundraising appeal.
Chris Keane/Reuters
The Washington Post published, and then quickly retracted, a cartoon Tuesday depicting Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz as Santa and his two daughters as compliant monkeys.聽
鈥淐lassy. @WashingtonPost makes fun of my girls. . Caroline & Catherine are out of your league,鈥� Cruz tweeted Tuesday.聽
With the caption 鈥淭ed Cruz uses his children as political props,鈥� the cartoon, drawn by聽Ann Telnaes, the paper鈥檚 editorial cartoonist,聽references a political ad the Cruz campaign aired during the holiday episode of Saturday Night Live last week. 聽
In , Cruz is reading classic Christmas stories on the couch with his wife, Heidi, and two daughters. But in the vein of SNL parody ads, each title is revised for a GOP chuckle. Some of Cruz鈥檚 鈥渢imeless Christmas classics鈥� include, 鈥淗ow Obamacare Stole Christmas, 鈥淩udolph the Underemployed Reindeer,鈥� and 鈥淔rosty the Speaker of the House,鈥� which takes a jab at former Speaker John Boehner.
鈥淚 know just what I鈥檒l do, she said with a snicker. I鈥檒l use my own server,鈥� one of Cruz鈥檚 daughters reads aloud from the Hillary-Clinton-themed book 鈥淭he Grinch Who Lost Her Emails.鈥�
Ms. Telnaes has defended her sketch, saying her cartoon was appropriate because Cruz chose to bring his children into the political limelight first.聽
"When a politician uses his children as political props, as Ted Cruz recently did in his Christmas parody video in which his eldest daughter read (with her father's dramatic flourish) a passage of an edited Christmas classic, then ,"聽Telnaes wrote in a statement accompanying the cartoon before it was taken down.聽
She later took to Twitter to defend her work:
Fred Hiatt, the editoral page editor of the Washington Post, disapproved of Telnaes鈥� cartoon, but he admitted that he understood her reasoning.
鈥淚t鈥檚 generally been the policy of our editorial section to leave children out of it. I failed to look at this cartoon before it was published,鈥� Hiatt wrote Tuesday in a statement that replaced the cartoon. 鈥淚 understand why was warranted in this case, but I do not agree.鈥澛�
Caroline and Catherine Cruz are not the first political kids to wind up in the media spotlight.
As the Post itself noted last year,聽Americans with the antics of political kids, especially presidential ones, from Barbara and Jenna Bush's transgressions against Texas liquor laws, to Alice Roosevelt's habit of carrying a snake, to the sheer destruction that a visit from聽Tad and Willie Lincoln would bring.聽
鈥淭he lesson: Don鈥檛 say anything bad about the president鈥檚 kids,鈥� the Post鈥檚 Jamie Fuller advised. 鈥淎lso, the Internet is always waiting for the next thing to be outraged about; don鈥檛 make its job too easy.鈥�