LETTER

Clinton’s emails, a third lane, and how to carpool

 

Editorialist Fred Ryan is living in an alternate reality (watching too much cable news?) if he thinks there was nothing to Hillary's email scandal (two Ls in Hillary). Mere mortals were sent to prison for far less than she did. 33,000 of her emails were deleted using software known as BleachBit after receiving a subpoena from Congress. I'm sure there was nothing in there. What does Fred Ryan find so incomprehensible about this scandal? What more does he want before he acknowledges this isn't tabloid fodder? Just because he doesn't like Trump doesn't mean Hillary was a peach.

Another car lane wouldn't help much on Lucerne since most cars have one occupant and the bridge is a bottleneck. Contrasting the desire for another car lane with the addition of bike lanes is a false dilemma.

And that traffic on Aylmer Road! If you can't find someone to carpool with, just follow my lead and have a kid to get access to the fast lane. Worth every penny!

Eric Russell
Aylmer

Reply to Mr Russell: My alternate reality is one that requires some evidence before I believe something.  Mr Russell claims Clinton’s emails show corruption. Any evidence? Just because he thinks so?  Sorry, too much alternative reality here, or is it a mistaken view of what constitutes proof or evidence? On top of this, Mr Russell strangely misreads my editorial as an effort to support Ms Clinton – while the editorial was clearly about the dangers, now very evident, of accepting social media “news” as accurate.  

My argument is that any media that utilizes several layers of investigative reporting, fact-checking, and proof-reading is certainly more dependable a source than one reporting unsubstantiated claims. Likewise, to conclude that I support “cable news” is bizarre – or is it an example of right-wing misinformation, like shifting attention away from Trump with unproven accusations of Clinton? And, in the end, can Mr Russell really believe that even a million emails are more significant than Trump’s racism, misogyny, threats, encouragement to harm, political inexperience and plain stupidity, with matching arrogance, about the world?

Concern about the rise of fake news flooding social media is more important to us than the US election results – fake-news flooding affects all of us and all of our news sourcing no matter where we live, and these problems will only increase in the future.  I hear him; fake news doesn’t bother Mr Russell; in fact, he likes it because it feeds his presuppositions, I gather. Do other readers support this misinformation free-for-all?

- FR