Corporate Media’s Climate Change Narrative Goes Down In Flames After Man Charged With Starting LA Fire

The corporate media rushed to blame climate change for the Pacific Palisades fires that ravaged Los Angeles, California, in January, though it turned out the fires were caused by an arsonist.

The alleged arsonist, 29-year-old Jonathan Rinderknecht, has been charged for “maliciously” starting a fire in the Palisades shortly after midnight on New Year’s Day. The fires burned over 23,000 acres, destroyed over 6,000 structures and killed 12 people.

Several outlets, including The Associated Press, CNN, The New York Times and NPR, all immediately attributed the fires and the rapid spread of the flames to climate change.

The New York Times stated in the caption of its piece, “‘Everything Is Burned Down,’” that climate change loomed over the tragic losses caused by the fires. The article emphasized that “soaring temperatures” and an “overheating planet” are causing wildfires.

“But the conditions that exacerbated this conflagration — soaring temperatures, severe drought, dry vegetation — are all symptoms of an overheating planet,” the Times wrote on Jan. 9. “As humans continue pumping greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, temperatures around the world are rising, extreme wildfires are getting more frequent and more intense, and fires are spreading faster, too.”

The Associated Press (AP) published the headline, “Climate change contributed to a week of wild weather that upended life in the US” and attributed the fires to the strong winds and the rising temperatures for the disastrous wildfires.

“Climate change laid the groundwork for California’s megafires. Atmospheric riversdumped huge amounts of water on the region that caused plenty of plant growth. Then, a fast onset of drought dried them out, providing plenty of fodder for the flames,” the AP wrote.

The AP also cited scientists in a separate article who stated that the fires spread so rapidly because of climate change.

NBC News reported on Jan. 28 that the fires were 35% more likely because of climate change while citing a report from the World Weather Attribution group, an organization heavily focused on climate change. In a separate article from Feb. 6, the outlet claimed that the wildfires were directly caused by “monthslong, climate change-fueled weather patterns.”

MSNBC invited a guest who escaped the fires on “The 11th Hour with Stephanie Ruhle” to blame climate change and natural disasters for the situation.

“There are a lot of bigger issues, including climate change, which is the approximate cause of a lot of the natural disasters that are happening,” Darron Hurwitz said.

WATCH:

Political commentator Molly Jong-Fast told MSNBC’s Nicolle Wallace that climate change was a “major factor” of the fires during a Jan. 9 segment of “Deadline: White House.”

“I would add that I think climate change is a major factor here … The Palisades and Pasadena is not supposed to burn. Those are not rural areas, right? Those are suburbs. Like, you see fires in Malibu a lot because it’s rural. This is not rural, these are suburbs. So if suburbs are burning, what does that mean for the state? What does that mean for the rest of us? I mean, these are real existential climate change questions that we’re gonna have to start looking at because it’s here,” Jong-Fast said.

WATCH:

In CNN’s live coverage of the fires, the network stated that hotter temperatures are the “clearest climate change-fueled contributor to wildfires.”

“Wildfires are fueled by a knot of factors, both natural and human-caused, but scientists say that global warming is loading the dice in favor of more intense and severe blazes,” CNN wrote. “Hotter temperatures are the clearest climate change-fueled contributor to wildfires. Heat sucks the moisture from vegetation making it much more combustible.”

NPR noted that new studies were linking climate change to the cause of the ravaging wildfires in its piece, “How did climate change affect the Los Angeles fires?” On NPR’s radio program, KQED climate reporter Ezra David Romero came on to discuss how climate change is responsible for the fires.

The Guardian also published an article titled, “The Los Angeles wildfires are climate disasters compounded.” Politico further alleged that the fires were caused by “climate chaos”  and “a rapidly warming planet.”

The Washington Post claimed in an article from Jan. 10 that climate change created the “perfect recipe for California’s urban firestorms.”

California government officials also attempted to point fingers at climate change for the tragedy. Democratic Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, who faced intense scrutiny over her handling of the fires, wrote on X that the fires were a “natural disaster.”

“Los Angeles is taking action.  This unprecedented natural disaster requires an unprecedented response,” the mayor wrote.

Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom said that climate change is the cause of the fires.

“The extreme weather conditions California first responders are facing are unprecedented,” Newsom said. “From record-breaking droughts to hurricane-force winds — climate change is here and it is real. See it for yourself.  Thank you to the heroic personnel and nationwide, international, and tribal support for putting your lives on the line to combat these historic firestorms. We will continue to do all that we can to help Californians recover from these fires and advance toward recovery.”

During a CNN interview, former Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Administrator Deanne Criswell said the fires were caused by the effects of climate change.

“This is just the new world we’re living in due to the climate crisis—extreme heat, prolonged droughts, hurricane-force Santa Ana winds—all of that created the tinderbox fueling this catastrophe,” Criswell said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”