Adam Zyglis

What is a "spiked" cartoon? It's one that you won't see in the newspaper. Every once in a while (a long long while, I might add) a finished cartoon of mine doesn't make it to print. In fact, I can count on one hand the number of times this has happened in the nearly eight years I've been at The News. And the last time was in 2009. Here's how the process goes: the Editor in Chief, Margaret Sullivan, looks over the finished editorial page at the end of each day. If something on the page (cartoon, column or editorial) crosses a line of taste in her opinion, she retains the right to spike it. To be clear, I am given total free rein in terms of opinion, as long as I can defend the message. This freedom is all thanks to Margaret and her respect for cartooning. However, when the rare image stikes her as unnecessarily offensive to groups within the community, that's when the line is crossed. She enlists the opinions of other editors before I'm given the bad news. Here is the cartoon in question. Do you think it went too far?

My editor thought its use of sensitive religious symbolism during the season of Lent made it too offensive for the editorial page. I went with the metaphor because it aptly and forcefully conveyed my opinion: Rick Santorum's religious culture war is sacrificing the greater good of the Republican Party. My job is to produce the strongest possible work within my own threshold for taste. I'll leave the editing to the editors.