If you argue that fact-checking websites like PolitiFact should not be the final arbiter of what is true because they fact-check Republicans way more than Democrats, the response you are likely to get is because they deserve it. However, a Thursday article on Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer undermines that point because the article makes it clear that Schumer was wrong to blame the Trump Administration for a recent maritime accident, but PolitiFact refused to give Schumer a false label.
The background for Schumer’s claim was a Mexican naval training sailing ship that crashed into the Brooklyn Bridge as part of a global goodwill tour. Maria Ramirez Uribe cites Schumer’s response:
‘I’m fighting for answers about whether Trump and DOGE have impacted water traffic control,’ Schumer posted May 18 on X. DOGE is a reference to the Department of Government Efficiency, which has undertaken efforts to slash government spending.
Schumer’s post continued, ‘We know they’ve been meddling with U.S. Coast Guard staffing. … And the hiring freeze has limited the ability for the USCG to staff up the Vehicle Traffic Service.’
Uribe had no trouble debunking Schumer’s nautically challenged hot take, “The Department of Homeland Security responded on X to Schumer’s X post, calling his comments ‘false.’ The post said the Coast Guard was exempt from hiring freezes, and that the incident ‘had nothing to do with Vessel Traffic Services — when a ship loses propulsion in a high current area, the vessel needs to engage all capabilities to stop and ideally tugs are nearby to support.’"
If citing the Trump administration against a Democratic senator is not good enough for Schumer supporters, Uribe also cites professor and former Coast Guard Captain Peter Boynton. She reports that “Boynton said, based on available information, it does not appear that staffing changes would have prevented the incident. He said that the Vessel Traffic Service doesn’t typically handle ship navigation ‘on this small scale,’ when the ship has only a short distance to go from pier to channel. The Vessel Traffic Service would have alerted the ship if there was another vessel in its vicinity, for example.”
Uribe adds, “Sam Coonan, a former Coast Guard officer and Massachusetts Maritime Academy emergency management professor, agreed. She said several factors including the Coast Guard’s budget affect Vessel Traffic Service staffing. But she said it is ‘very unlikely’ that staffing played a role, citing the ship’s engine failure.”
Schumer’s false did not receive a false label, meaning Schumer’s database—which currently sits at 12 varieties of true, 5 half-true, and 11 varieties of false—remains unaffected. PolitiFact may defend itself by pointing to another two articles it published this week on Trump’s claim that South Africa is waging genocide against white people. In both cases, PolitiFact argued Trump was wrong but refused to give him a false label.
However, PolitiFact still has a double standards problem. South Africa has been the leader of the global movement slandering Israel by accusing it of waging genocide in the Gaza War. PolitiFact has never written explainer pieces criticizing South Africa or anyone else who makes that accusation despite Israel clearly not meeting “The official definition of genocide, written in 1948 following negotiations led by the United Nations,” which “is killing, causing bodily harm, preventing births, or forcing the transferral of children ‘with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group.’”
To return to Schumer, it is clear he saw a tragedy that cost the lives of two Mexican cadets that he decided to politicize by conversing on technical aspects of ship navigation that he knew absolutely nothing about. It was so bad, even PolitiFact could not ignore it, but for some reason, he escaped the dreaded Truth-o-Meter.
