Dear Susan...

We got a chuckle this morning while reading the letters to the editor in the Lexington Herald-Leader.

Susan Fey, a correspondent from Versailles, was lamenting the poor response a H-L subscription salesman was getting as he tried to peddle his wares in front of a grocery store. Ms. Fey wrote that she was saddened that the salesman couldn't even give away complimentary copies of that day's paper. She lamented what those people were missing by not reading the newspaper. She went on to say it's "truly tragic" that reading volumes in general are down.

Well, Susan, it might be that those folks weren't rejecting the art of reading in general, but were specifically rejecting the Herald-Leader's out-of-touch political and social philosophies. Perhaps these people were former subscribers or readers who choose to get their news and analysis elsewhere.

Newspaper readership in general is declining. At the same time, the popularity of talk radio, the Internet and other alternative media sources is growing.

No, Ms. Fey, this isn't a rejection of knowledge. It's a rejection of the mainstream media and their editorial philosophies.