Jody Nishman: I’ll trust my source, not yours

In his response letter regarding the war in Ukraine, Dr. E. Martin Schotz asserts that his information sources are reliable [“Mainstream corporate news media not the place to stay informed,” Gazette, March 7]. The only reason given that we should trust his sources is that they are not part of the mainstream corporate news media. We shouldn’t automatically trust the mainstream news media, nor should we automatically discount them.

The same is true for independent sources. A few examples of alternative “news” disinformation: Hillary Clinton was part of a national pedophile conspiracy operating out of a pizzeria; Beyonce is a member of the illuminati; the Holocaust never happened, etc.

As an alternative to the writer’s sources, I would suggest an excellent starting point is the writings and podcasts of Timothy Snyder, an American historian at Yale University specializing in the history of Central and Eastern Europe, the Soviet Union, and the Holocaust. He spent much time in Russia and Ukraine, is fluent in both countries’ languages, and has a deep understanding of the region based on history and facts. What he says about the war in Ukraine today and how it arose is antithetical to Dr. Schotz’s sources.

According to Snyder, the Ukrainian people have never wanted Putin’s dream of a reconstituted Soviet superpower. Ukraine looked to NATO for protection because they knew they couldn’t withstand Putin’s aggression without NATO’s help. Neither I nor likely Dr. Schotz have direct experience of this tragedy, but I see no reason to trust his sources or conclusions given what he has presented. On the contrary.

Jody Nishman

Haydenville