LA Times reports:

Fire commanders say they are often pressured to order planes and helicopters into action on major fires even when the aircraft won’t do any good. Such pressure has resulted in needless and costly air operations, experienced fire managers said in interviews. The reason for the interference, they say, is that aerial drops of water and retardant make good television. They’re a highly visible way for political leaders to show they’re doing everything possible to quell a wildfire, even if it entails overriding the judgment of incident commanders on the ground. Firefighters have developed their own vernacular for such spectacles. They call them “CNN drops.” “A lot of people do a lot of things for publicity and for politics that don’t need to be done,” said Jim Ziobro, fire aviation chief for the Oregon Department of Forestry. Increased use of aircraft is helping to drive up the cost of fighting wildfires. The Forest Service spent $296 million on aerial firefighting last year, compared with $171 million in 2004. Aviation costs amount to about one-fifth of the agency’s fire-suppression spending.

Interesting, but let’s see if this changes the coverage. Here’s the LA Times from So Cal fires in 2007:

The Witch fire in northern San Diego County had already devoured more than 150,000 acres, and was eating its way down the San Dieguito River Valley, heading straight for the blue-chip seaside real estate of Del Mar and Rancho Santa Fe.
And now — good morning, Battalion Chief Lutz — the city of Ramona’s main water pump had died, courtesy of a burning power transmission line.
That could mean no water to fill the bellies of Lutz’s small, ad hoc fleet of air tankers based at Ramona Airport. No water to dilute the blood-red fire retardant to the proper color and consistency of strawberry milk.
The four tankers, along with three spotter planes, comprised the entire fixed-wing air force deployed against not only the monstrous Witch fire, but also the Harris fire blazing to the southeast of San Diego, and the Rice fire , about 60 miles north. Lutz had been begging her superiors for more planes, dreaming especially of a DC-10 that could carry about 12,000 gallons of liquid, ten times the load of one of her tankers.
It was in operation elsewhere, she was told.
“We’ve told them to give us everything they have,” she said. “None are available.”