UPDATE 12.22.15: The Washington Post removed the cartoon late Tuesday evening, and issued an apology explaining that they did not review Telnaes’ work prior to publishing.
“It’s generally been the policy of our editorial section to leave children out of it,” Post editor Fred Hiatt said in a statement.
“I failed to look at this cartoon before it was published. I understand why Ann thought an exception to the policy was warranted in this case, but I do not agree.”
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Sen. Ted Cruz’s daughters, Caroline, 7, and Catherine, 5, are “fair game” for criticism now that they’ve appeared in a Christmas-themed video with their father, a Washington Post editorial cartoonist declared Tuesday.
The Post’s Ann Telnaes followed up with this statement by publishing a cartoon depicting the 2016 GOP presidential candidate as an organ grinder and his two young daughters as dancing monkeys.
“There is an unspoken rule in editorial cartooning that a politician’s children are off-limits. People don’t get to choose their family members so obviously it’s unfair to ridicule kids for their parent’s behavior while in office or on the campaign trail- besides, they’re children,” Telnaes wrote Tuesday. “There are plenty of adults in the political world who act childish, so there is no need for an editorial cartoonist to target actual children.”
“I’ve kept to that rule, except when the children are adults themselves or choose to indulge in grown-up activities (as the Bush twins did during the George W Bush presidency).
“But 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 I figure they are fair game,” she concluded.
The video referenced by Telnaes features the Texas senator reading classic Christmas stories (with a political twist) to his two daughters.
Cruz has since responded to the editorial cartoon, saying on social media, “Classy. @washingtonpost makes fun of my girls. Stick w/ attacking me — Caroline & Catherine are out of your league.”
The children of political candidate are viewed in most circles as being off-limits for the type of criticism and mockery associated with American politics. This standard is sometimes fiercely enforced.
In 2014, an obscure GOP Hill staffer was forced to resign from her job after a Facebook post criticizing President Obama’s daughters, Sasha and Malia, went viral on social media.
In a now-deleted post published on Thanksgiving Day, Elizabeth Lauten wrote in reference to the annual White House turkey pardon, “Dear Sasha and Malia, I get you’re both in those awful teen years, but you’re a part of the First Family, try showing a little class. … Act like being in the White House matters to you. Dress like you deserve respect, not a spot at a bar. And certainly don’t make faces during televised public events.”
After her comments sparked an avalanche of online criticism, she later apologized, saying “After many hours of prayer, talking to my parents, and re-reading my words online, I can see more clearly just how hurtful my words were. I’d like to apologize to all of those who I have hurt and offended with my words, and I pledge to learn and grow (and I assure you I have) from this experience.”
Outside of social media, Lauten’s comments also created a media firestorm, and even led the networks one evening in December.
“It is one of the few rules that the news media and the mob usually both adhere to: Leave families out of the fight. However, tonight a Republican staffer is out of a job after something she wrote on social media about the first daughters,” then-NBC News anchor Brian Williams said on Dec. 1, 2014.
Spokespersons for the Post did not respond to the Washington Examiner’s request for comment.
