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Philadelphia Inquirer Spikes 2 Cartoons By Syndicated Artist Tony Auth

By Pat Loeb

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - Philadelphia Inquirer readers are seeing less of Pulitzer prize-winning cartoonist Tony Auth, though they don't even realize it. A review of his syndicated cartoons shows the paper killed two of Auth's cartoons last month -- a shift from the usual latitude they have given him for the past 40 years.

An elephant, representing Republican lawmakers, laments the failure of the deficit reduction committee, even though there are clear signs that it is delighted. That's the latest Tony Auth cartoon the Inquirer chose not to publish. Neither Auth nor Inquirer editor Stan Wischnowski will comment but it seems an ominous sign to David Wallis, a journalist who wrote a book about spiked editorial cartoons.

"It's a shame, in the grand sense of the word. It's a shame that they would spike this cartoon. It's outrageous."

Wallis says the cartoon is so innocuous, he doesn't understand the reasoning.

Kelly McBride of the Poynter Institute says the paper should be more transparent about it.

"It seems like something's changed, but it's hard to say what if no one from management at the paper will answer any questions."

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