AS and Ad Mgr for a large retail chain in the 80′s, I often asked the newspapers in our market why only half of our credit card customers subscribed to their product. Of course, they couldn’t explain nor would they acknowledge that some of their subscribers took their papers only to find out what was on sale, not for the “news”, “opinion” and pre-selected “wire service articles”. However, they really blanched when I asked them about literacy in America, about public education’s failure to teach not only written english, but civics, history and critical thinking. Chickens do come home to roost.