Perhaps the editor of the Local News section of the Bee can explain the article on page B2 of Friday's (May 9, 2008) edition detailing Mr. Ray Appleton's illness. Just why do 99 % of the citizens of Fresno care? How on earth can this be considered a "news" item? If in fact this is newsworthy then why were the illnesses of every other Fresno resident not also documented that day? Where has responsible journalism gone?

Dan Elwood
Fresno

You bring up a good point. The reason we wrote the item is that Appleton is a very popular radio host with thousands of listeners who probably were wondering what was going on when he seemed uncharacteristically confused Thursday morning. Then there was a period of dead air, and he was gone, with a replacement filling in for him and no explanation given. Our story should have included that information, and then it might have been more apparent why we would bother to write it. It was one of the most read items on fresnobee.com Thursday, by the way.