Name: Analyzing Gov. Newsoms fact-checking efforts on wildfires
Uploaded: 2025-01-25T02:07:46.769Z
Duration: 3 min
Description: California Gov. Gavin Newsom is taking to the internet to fight wildfire misinformation. CBS News Sacramento investigative reporter Julie Watts and the CBS News Confirmed team have partnered up to fact-check Newsom.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom is taking to the internet to fight wildfire misinformation. CBS News Sacramento investigative reporter Julie Watts and the CBS News Confirmed team have partnered up to fact-check Newsom.

Pacific Palisades

More than a thousand structures have been destroyed and lives lost as wildfires sweep across parts of Los Angeles.

LA Wildfires

Governor Gavin Newsom of California has initiated an effort to confront misinformation regarding wildfires in the state. Utilizing his own fact-checking website, hosted on his personal domain, Newsom aims to counter claims he classifies as lies. Instead of targeting statements made by former President Trump directly, he addresses comments made by people echoing Trump's sentiments. This strategy appears to be a form of social media diplomacy, designed to focus on information spread through various channels.

Certain fact-checks provided by Newsom are straightforward, such as refuting that the Hollywood sign was set ablaze. However, more complex claims require nuanced examination. One significant case involved reports claiming Newsom cut California's fire budget by $100 million before the Los Angeles fires. Newsom called these reports "ridiculous lies." Nevertheless, records indicate that he did cut over $100 million in supplemental wildfire-related funding, although the cuts are deemed unlikely to have affected the fires directly.

The discussion on whether California ran out of water presents another claim addressed by Newsom. Reports surfaced online stating there was no water in Los Angeles fire hydrants due to alleged issues with reservoir refilling. Newsom clarified that reservoirs in California are full and there is no overall water shortage, despite a 117 million-gallon reservoir near the Palisades fire being out of service. L.A. city officials explained that the dry hydrants were due to unprecedented demand which exhausted three one-million-gallon water tanks feeding the hydrants, rather than a shortage of water.



Analyzing Gov. Newsom's fact-checking efforts on wildfires

Yet Governor Newsom set up his own fact-checking website to counter what he calls lies about California's wildfires. But they're not all lies, exactly. So we asked our CBS News confirmed team to fact-check the governor's fact-check. I ask you, we've got to deal with this misinformation. There are hurricane force winds of mis- and disinformation lies. Misinformation after a disaster is nothing new, but Governor Newsom's approach to combating it certainly is. He set up his very own fact-check website using his personal domain. Interestingly, he never directly fact-checks President Trump. You might call it social media diplomacy. Instead, he fact-checks posts from people who echo the president's sentiments. While some of his fact checks are easily verifiable, like the Hollywood sign was not on fire, others require some nuance, which brings us to fact-check number one. Did Governor Newsom cut California's fire budget ahead of the L.A. fires? Newsweek was first to publish the headline, but the governor didn't respond until it was picked up by Fox News. More stupidity and stunning incompetence from California's Democrat leaders. Newsom called the reports that he cut California's fire budget by $100 million in the months before the fire a ridiculous lie. Except it's not a lie. Let's start with the governor's fact-check. It is a fact that since he took office, the number of Cal Fire personnel and Cal Fire's budget has increased significantly. It did not double. It is also a fact that Newsom did cut more than $100 million in supplemental wildfire related funding last year. Here's the budget. It includes $12 million in cuts for home hardening, $5 million for prescribed fires and hand crews. But the bulk of the cuts were for biomass pilot and conservation projects. So it's unlikely these cuts would have actually impacted the L.A. fires. Now to fact-check number two. Did California run out of water? For the sake of the smell, they have no water. They had no water in the fire hydrants today in Los Angeles. It was a terrible thing. Instead of fact-checking the president, the governor fact-checked a post from Libs of TikTok saying there's no water coming out of the hydrants because the city didn't fill the reservoirs. As the governor notes, in fact, the reservoirs in California are full and there's no water shortage in Southern California. In fact, state data shows that all but three of California's major reservoirs are at or above historical averages. But the 117 million gallon reservoir nearest the Palisades fire was out of service when the fires began. Newsom said he's launching an independent investigation. Now it's worth noting that the reservoir is not the reason the fire hydrants ran dry. According to L.A. city officials, they did have three one million gallon water tanks feeding those hydrants, but those tanks ran out of water by the second morning of the firefight. They say it wasn't due to a lack of water but rather unprecedented demand. They say they couldn't fill the tanks fast enough to get enough water pressure to then feed back to those hydrants. So a lot of important context and nuance here.

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LA Wildfires