California wildfires show blatant mainstream media failure
On January 10, 2025, the L.A. Times carried a column headlined “Trump shoots his mouth off as L.A. burns. His claims about fire hydrants don’t hold water.”
The author of this drivel, George Skelton, besides baselessly attacking Trump, claimed that the catastrophe was unavoidable.
[P]lenty of fresh delta water is being pumped south to fill fire hydrants and the tanks of firefighting aircraft. Hundreds of millions of gallons of water flow daily down the California Aqueduct. Major Southland reservoirs are at historically high levels. Anyway, much of L.A.’s water doesn’t even come from the Delta. It flows from the Owens Valley and the Colorado River. [snip]
[T]he hydrants went dry simply because there were too many fires to fight, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power explained. Storage tanks went dry.
On the same day, the L.A. Times carried another piece that acknowledged dry fire hydrants but blamed it on the system limitations.
On January 14, 2025, the L.A. Times carried a piece linking the fires to climate change.
Most of the pieces covered the fires and the firefighters, but there was little or no blame placed on Democrat authorities.
On January 25, 2025, the L.A. Times reported that “[o]fficials were warned of failing water system before Palisades fire. Fixes never happened”
Records show L.A. County missed dozens of opportunities for water infrastructure improvements that experts say likely would have helped firefighters during the Palisades fire.
Some of the long-delayed projects were specifically aimed at improving “fire flow” and ensuring enough water during emergencies.
A county official said that the water system “performed as designed” during the Palisades fire and that additional water would have saved “relatively few homes.”
Los Angeles County officials missed dozens of opportunities for water infrastructure improvements that experts say probably would have enabled firefighters to save more homes during the Palisades fire, public records show.
The piece provides myriad instances of authorities ignoring building water storage infrastructure that could have helped control the fires.
So what does one make of this?
This is a ploy the mainstream media frequently apply when the Democrats are found negligent. The media first toe the party line and denigrate challengers to their hoaxes. When the hysteria dies down, they reveal facts, hoping nobody is paying attention.
This ploy was also applied to Hunter Biden’s laptop story, COVID-19 vaccines, etc.
Never will the purveyors of falsehoods admit their lies or retract their falsehoods.
In southern California, wildfires have been a frequent occurrence since 2000.
Proper forest management can be effective in preventing or retarding these fires. Forest management involves the periodic removal of flammable material such as dry leaves in fire-prone forest areas. An additional incentive is that farmers can use dry leaves as compost. Perhaps tree trunks can be coated with fire-retardant paints.
Alas, there was little action here.
The authorities should have used experts to innovate such that the fire-prone areas are never short of water in the event of fires.
Unfortunately, there was water scarcity such that even fire hydrants were rendered useless.
If water is scarce, the authorities should invest in non-water-based fire suppression systems. Alas, that didn’t happen, either.
It was also essential that all fire prevention outfits have trained personnel and the resources to prevent and fight fires. Alas, California governor Gavin Newsom cut $100 million, and L.A. mayor Bass cut $49 million from the state’s and city’s fire prevention budget, respectively.
Consequently, the fires spread and caused widespread destruction.
When fires occur frequently, the authorities should ensure that evacuation alert systems should be foolproof.
Unfortunately, even the evacuation alerts failed during the L.A. fires, causing deaths and injuries.
What is even more unforgivable is that little remedial action has been taken, resulting in the fires still raging almost three weeks after they began.
This was a monumental failure on every level by the California and L.A. authorities.
What does the LA Times do? It blames system limitations and climate change.
When the paper realized that a significant section of its subscribers were probably affected by the fire, it conceded that the authorities had erred.
This also enables journalists to be on the right side of history for anyone who accuses them of bias.
President Trump was doing the media’s job by calling out Newsom and other Democrats.
It isn’t just now. During the 2018 wildfires, President Trump warned Newsom about the importance of forest management.
The L.A. Times’ recent attack on Trump was meant to divert the focus from abject dereliction of duty by Democrat authorities.
President Trump even challenged L.A. mayor Bass for her incompetence, and citizens joined in.
Once again, expect the likes of the LA Times to attack Trump rather than Bass, whose negligence caused the fires.
When wildfires became an annual occurrence in 2000, the media had a function not only to question, but to build a pressure campaign to compel authorities to act. Perhaps citizens and celebrities could have been recruited in this campaign.
Alas, those who should have been fearless watchdogs devolved into lapdogs. This media failure can hence be seen as one of the reasons for irreparable loss in California.
The media have blood on their hands, much like the Democrat authorities. President Trump was right when he called the dishonest and corrupt media the enemy of the people.
Image: Jeff Head via Flickr, public domain.