Week of Jan. 16, 2025

From the editor’s desk

Dear trolls and misinformation proliferators: You succeeded this week. You got the better of me.

As a journalist—and as a person—I see my fair share of mean or irresponsible communications. Much of the time, I just roll with the punches, recognize that outrage sells, close my social media tabs, and proceed with the taxing but satisfying work of getting verified, accurate news out to my community.

But this week, it’s different. 

Deliberate misinformation about the Los Angeles County (and now Ventura County) fires is proliferating like crazy. My social media feeds are awash with callous quips, including a good number of fire-and-brimstone assertions that Californians actually deserve such destruction, because they voted in a Democrat.

Yep, this stupid, nonsensical callousness—worthy of mere dismissal—got under my skin this week.

A friend of mine in Los Angeles County died a few weeks ago, of causes not related to the fires, leaving behind a house in Altadena that she’d scraped for decades to buy, containing countless artworks. She made intriguing black-and-white photographs documenting the ever-changing face of Los Angeles—and Reno, too! On brief visits here, using a manual camera loaded with actual film, she photographed every motel that looked like it might not survive the next rounds of gentrification. She made a wonderful photo collection of the one-story, brick houses on Center Street before they were replaced by an apartment tower and some empty lots on what is now University Way.

This month, her house burned to the ground in the Eaton Fire, along with her prints and negatives. It is ironic, and terribly sad, that a lovely person’s life’s work of documenting things before they changed was obliterated in an instant.

It’s harrowing to think of how many similar losses have occurred. Lifetimes of sincere human efforts, heart and hard work became messy piles of ash, and the inhabitants of these former homes are sleeping on couches or in parking lots, contending with a level of uncertainty I cannot comprehend from here. It makes the misinformation, callousness and knee-jerk finger pointing sting even more. 

At the RN&R, we will of course continue to check our facts before we pass them along. I implore you to check yours too, early and often. Nonpartisan Politifact’s “Fact-check: Did California Gov. Gavin Newsom cut $100 million in fire prevention?” is one helpful place to start. TLDR: He did, but the news lands a lot differently in the context that Fox News et. al., have ignored—those cuts came as California faced a budget deficit, and the state’s fire-prevention budget has nearly tripled over the last decade.

Take care,

—Kris Vagner, managing editor