The New York Times covered the tragic deaths in California’s mountain communities during the recent blizzards — without mentioning once that Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) had left the state during the crisis.
In fact, there is not a single mention of Newsom in the article — no mention of his trip to Baja California, not even an attempt to describe the governor’s belated attempts to declare an emergency or request disaster funds.
The article, “Residents Fret Over Deaths in Southern California Mountains,” tells the heartbreaking stories of residents who died during the blizzards that arrived in the last week of February and only recently subsided:
Alden Park Thayer, 85, an Air Force veteran, a man of faith and a retired professional baker, died at his Lake Arrowhead home as the snow drifts outside piled up to 10 feet, then 14 feet. His daughter, Lisa Thayer, had sat by his side singing “How Great Thou Art.”
The roads were impassable, and the emergency officials said it would be a week until they could retrieve his body, and so, Ms. Thayer said, for the next five days it lay on a mattress with a pillow and blanket in the garage.
The Times claimed that it is “unclear how many more lives had been lost because of contributing, blizzard-related factors, such as blocked roads, downed power lines or critical medical care that could not be summoned.” It cited local officials who said they could not conclude causes of death — though it noted that residents believed the storm was to blame.
Many residents have faulted local authorities for their slow response to the storm and their failure to prepare adequately — a failure reflected in Newsom’s approach to the storm.
As Breitbart News has reported, Newsom belatedly declared a state of emergency for 13 counties last Wednesday, then left the state without explanation, returning only on Sunday. This past Wednesday, he expanded the state of emergency to 21 counties and requested federal disaster relief — two weeks after the storm began.
The Times, like many other mainstream outlets, paid close attention to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) during last year’s Hurricane Ian, watching closely as the potential future presidential candidate managed the crisis.
The Times took a stronger interest in the absence of then-New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg in December 2010, when a blizzard dumped several feet of snow on the city, causing dangerous conditions.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the new biography, Rhoda: ‘Comrade Kadalie, You Are Out of Order’. He is also the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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