The L.A. Fires Proved the Urgent Need for Local News in an Age of Social Media Conspiracies and Outright Lies

variety.com:

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at Large During those frightening, early moments of the L.A.-area wildfires last week, I was obsessively flipping from one local TV station to the next to get my fill of coverage.

ABC 7, KTLA, KCAL (which also airs on CBS 2), NBC 4, Fox 11… they were all on the front lines, sharing valuable information while chronicling the shocking images of our neighborhoods under siege.

When I had to be in the car, I was locked into KNX NewsRadio and also checking out LAist 89.3 and KCRW. And when I needed some immediate information, like all of you, I downloaded the Watch Duty app.

I was texting news with friends, and then checking in with our own Variety workspace on Slack to see how my colleagues were doing.