A new report suggests that LA city leadership has scrubbed clashes between Karen Bass and reporters as a means to rehab her image following the wildfires.
Tense exchanges between Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and reporters regarding the recent wildfires are missing from certain livestreams, as well as the city leader’s social media.
According to a new report from The Los Angeles Times, there have been several instances where tough questions from reporters fielded by Bass during her Q&As on the fires appear to have been removed from online links.
On January 5, the day after Bass returned home from Ghana, a CBS reporter asked the mayor what she had to say to critics demanding she step down.
Bass promised a complete account of what had gone wrong with the fire response and became visibly frustrated, telling the reporter, “I answered it in the morning. I answered it now. Won’t answer it again.”
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The back and forth can be found on the Los Angeles County government’s Facebook page. However, the exchange is entirely absent from the mayor’s Facebook page.
Footage of the January 9 news conference can be found on her account. Still, the video cuts off as the reporter begins asking questions.
This is not the only instance where questions painting the mayor in a negative light have been cut from online posts.
The videos of the January 8 evening and January 10 morning wildfire news conferences also exclude the Q&A segments. However, full versions of both briefings can still be found on the county website.
“The omission of Q and A — not just from social media but, on at least some occasions, the live feed watched by the public in real time — in some ways sanitizes the mayor’s image, removing the messy back-and-forth that takes place between politicians and the news media,” The Los Angeles Times reported.
These segments have often been a vulnerable time for Bass, with reporters questioning the timing of the mayor’s overseas trip and the city’s response.
During one conference, Bass became flustered when a question was raised about Los Angeles’ emergency reserve and whether the city had the money and resources to withstand the fires.
Towards the end of another session, Bass also struggled to answer a reporter’s question about the county’s malfunctioning emergency alert systems and whether residents can count on them to give accurate and timely information.
“We are not going to allow people to divide us for political gain,” Bass said.
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This revelation comes after Bass announced that LAFD Fire Chief Kristin Crowley had been fired.
Crowley had criticized Bass and other Democratic leadership with the city, claiming it had failed its 100,000 residents displaced during January’s wildfires and had made cuts to her budget, leading to staffing issues.
On Friday, Bass denied cutting the department’s budget, reiterating that Crowley had been fired because 1,000 firefighters had been sent home on the first day of the fires on January 7 and that she had later refused to do an after-action report.
The mayor’s office did not immediately return Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
Fox News’ Brie Stimson contributed to this report.