On Friday night's PBS News Hour -- two nights after they devoted nine minutes to recovery efforts on the Los Angeles wildfires without mentioning Mayor Karen Bass, Gov. Gavin Newsom or even the word "Democrats" -- they promoted a new book by MS NOW reporter Jacob Soboroff that mostly blames Donald Trump and Elon Musk for causing the most damage with their "disinformation." Soboroff did throw in the usual doom notes about climate "emergency" to please the PBS audience about the fires, which began in the last days of the Biden presidency: "Changes in the way we live, our infrastructure is falling apart, the global climate emergency, obviously, and the politics of misinformation and disinformation all played a part." The last phrase was all about Trump and Musk. PBS = MS NOW. On Friday's @NewsHour, they promoted Jacob Soboroff's new book on the L.A. wildfires, which he says is all about how Donald Trump & Elon Musk were "pouring rhetorical fuel on the very literal flames of the fire." News by and for Democrats. pic.twitter.com/Uy3M7VUt9J — Tim Graham (@TimJGraham) January 12, 2026 BENNETT: Let's talk more about that because fires are so often a climate story, but, this one, this became a political story in large part because of the misinformation. How did that change the trajectory of the response? SOBOROFF: It's so true. And I think when people read "Firestorm," it reads like at times a sci-fi thriller, but it is as true of a true story as it possibly can be. It is a minute-by-minute account of the lived experience of so many people. And that lived experience includes being confused by misinformation and disinformation that was coming out of not only local leaders and the inability for the local infrastructure to have emergency alert systems that worked to get people information and appropriate amount of time to evacuate. But the president-elect of the United States, Donald Trump -- and I don't think this is a secret or a surprise to anybody -- was sending out messages on his platform, TRUTH Social, about the causes of the fire that were based in no reality whatsoever. You remember that he said there's a mystical tap that we can turn on and flow water down from the Pacific Northwest to stop the fire. He blamed "Gavin Newscum" and the mayor of Los Angeles, Karen Bass. This book doesn't absolve any official from what could have made these fires different, but it does, I think, point a finger at particularly Donald Trump and Elon Musk for, from the sidelines, making -- pouring rhetorical fuel on the very literal flames of the fire.  Bennett didn't ask for specifics. He then prompted Soboroff to discuss his reporter-source relationship with Katie Miller, who asked him to check on the house of her husband Stephen Miller’s parents (it was gone). He added: “within minutes of going to do that for her, I noticed that her boss, Donald Trump, and her future boss, Elon Musk at DOGE, were spreading this misinformation and disinformation that was hurting people, including her own in-laws.” Newsom was criticized in passing: "And while it was fast, and President Trump and Gavin Newsom both liked to tout the speed with which these neighborhoods were cleaned up, there has been testing that shows that there are still elevated levels of toxic materials there, which are giving people pause about moving back, not just now, but if they will ever go back." Bennett, who worked with Soboroff at NBC/MSNBC for four years, closed out the segment: "The book is Firestorm: The Great Los Angeles Fires and America's New Age. Jacob Soboroff, always great to speak with you, friend."