For well over 40 years I've read the print edition of the New York Times almost every morning, trying to keep myself informed on important world matters. Until recently, I read it very carefully, but in the last few years I've noticed such a tremendous decline in its quality that these days I usually just glance at most of the articles, saving myself close to an hour a day. Other knowledgeable people seem to have reached similar conclusions, even including former Times editors.

With our leading mainstream outlets having become so unreliable, many of us now draw our information from alternative sources, but unfortunately these are often just as bad if not worse. As a result wildly exaggerated or incorrect stories can easily propagate across the Internet, including outright hoaxes.

Our own very lightly moderated website attracts many agitated commenters, and a few weeks ago some of them began claiming that a hypersonic Russian missile strike on an underground military bunker in Ukraine had killed dozens of NATO officers including American generals, a hugely important story that was being suppressed all across the Western media. This report struck me as typical Internet-nonsense and I paid absolutely no attention to it.

However, a couple of weeks later I was discussing foreign policy issues with a highly-regarded mainstream academic whom I know, someone who would certainly be considered a member of the American elite establishment. He shares my opinion of the total dishonesty of our mainstream media so he closely follows Ukraine war developments on various Telegram channels and he happened to mention the missile strike, being sure that it had actually happened even after I expressed my own strong skepticism. Therefore, I decided to investigate what might be a remarkable story.