Fighting Fires--and the Rumor Mill--as L.A. Burns

Los Angeles Fire Department Capt. Erik Scott has one of the most intense jobs in the nation right now: trying to distribute accurate public information during a historically destructive urban fire in America.

On Thursday, a new unexpected foe cropped up: Alex Jones, among the world’s most notorious conspiracy theorists, was posting on X that L.A. firefighters were battling the blazes using ladies’ handbags as buckets because officials had donated equipment to Ukraine. The post has been viewed 29 million times. Scott, the LAFD public-information officer, quickly explained publicly that the “handbags,” were actually canvas bags routinely carried by firefighters to douse small fires, because that is easier and faster than hauling out and connecting hoses.

(snip)

Fast-proliferating online falsehoods are forcing public officials nationwide to adopt a new job when crisis strikes their communities. Their duties now include knocking down the inevitable wave of lies, half-truths and conspiracy theories—some wild, some believable—that have of late become part of every major public emergency, from Hurricane Helene to the recent Tesla explosion in Las Vegas. This more assertive approach to debunking rumors is part of a playbook officials around the U.S. are increasingly turning to during natural disasters, high-profile crimes and contentious debates about issues like immigration. At the same time, social-media platforms are complicating their task by loosening the reins on what people can post.

(snip)

Numerous falsehoods about Hurricane Helene surfaced online last September amid rising floodwaters in western North Carolina and in the aftermath. “Bar none, this was probably the worst I’ve ever seen as far as misinformation and disinformation goes,” said Brian Haines, who helped manage the state’s joint information center. In response, the North Carolina Department of Public Safety created a still-live “Ground Truth” webpage, and “Hurricane Helene FAQs” that plainly lists and rebuffs the many assertions ricocheting around social media. Recovery efforts weren’t in fact “a land grab by the State of North Carolina” in disguise, nor were there “morgue trailers hidden with bodies still inside them.” It also wasn’t true, the state assured the public, that impacts from Helene were “due to weather manipulation.”

(snip)

The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department won praise for its handling of the case of troubled soldier Matthew Livelsberger, named as the man who blew up a rented Tesla Cybertruck outside the Trump International Hotel, killing himself and injuring several bystanders. The show put on by Sheriff Kevin McMahill was, according to fellow public safety officials, a kind of master class in how they should speak to the public in times of crisis. McMahill and his team pumped out easily-digestible updates on social media about the progress of the investigation.


More..

https://www.wsj.com/us-news/los-angeles-wildfires-social-media-rumors-44d224b4?st=2Gj1fi&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

(free)