Did a New York City spokesman say that a trucker boycott has caused shelves to go empty throughout stores in New York City in February 2024? No, that's not true: This story originated from a website that clearly labels itself satire. The site has a disclaimer that describes it as part of a network of "parody, satire, and tomfoolery." There is no evidence to support the claim that a New York City trucker boycott recently left store shelves empty.
The claim appeared in an article published by Patriot Party Press on February 19, 2024, titled "NYC Trucker Boycott Leaves Empty Shelves: It's Only Day One" (archived here). It began:
Over the weekend patriotic American truckers for Trump decided enough was enough. They saw the unfair treatment of our best President ever by the city of New York and by a liberal activist judge. And those truckers took action.
Users on social media only saw this title, description and thumbnail:
NYC Trucker Boycott Leaves Empty Shelves: It's Only Day One
The Trucker Boycott of New York is going strong with empty shelves all over the 5 boroughs and beyond, making it a success.
(Source: Patriot Party Press screenshot taken on Wed Apr 21 16:26:26 2024 UTC)
This article claims a New York City spokesman said, "It's only day one," in reference to a trucker boycott that had caused shelves to go empty throughout stores in New York City. A Google News search (archived here) of the thousands of sites indexed by Google News, using the previously mentioned keywords, produced no credible independent reports supporting the claim.
The article continued:
City spokesman Joe Barron said that shoppers have nowhere to turn.
A Google News search (archived here) of the thousands of sites indexed by Google News for a New York spokesperson named Joe Barron produced no results that substantiated this claim.
Joe Barron was a friend of Christopher Blair, a self-described liberal troll and the creator of the America's Last Line of Defense (ALLOD) network. Barron's name is frequently used in Blair's satirical stories as a posthumous tribute.
Further down in the article, it reads:
Trucker spokesman Chicago Ray, who was doxxed by the Deep State said it's only the beginning. The boycott will reach into New Jersey and other blue states that don't support our 45th president. 'Enough is enough!'
"Chicago Ray" is the nickname of a real trucker who garnered public attention by advising New Yorkers in a February 19, 2024, X post (archived here) to "start stocking up" because "millions of Truckers for Trump" were purportedly "refusing loads," Fox News reported in a February 19, 2024, article (archived here) that Chicago Ray had retracted his call for truckers to boycott New York City.
In a February 19, 2024, X post (archived here) on his public and verified X account, Ray explained that he took down his initial video calling for truckers to support Trump by halting any delivery to New York because it went viral, and his family members who could see his video on social media disapproved of that message.
A search (archived here) of the X platform for Ray purportedly having said, "It's only the beginning," and "Enough is enough!" as the Patriot Party Press article claimed revealed no results to substantiate the claim.
A search (archived here) of the Trucking Association of New York (TANY) website for "Trucker spokesman Chicago Ray" saying, "it's only the beginning," showed no results that confirmed this claim.
Lead Stories reached out to TANY and will update this fact check if a response is received.
Additional Lead Stories fact checks that mention "Joe Barron" and "Patriot Party Press" can be found here and here.
ALLOD
This site is part of the "America's Last Line of Defense" network of satire websites run by self-professed liberal troll Christopher Blair from Maine along with a loose confederation of friends and allies. He runs several websites and Facebook pages with visible satire disclaimers everywhere. They mostly publish made-up stories with headlines specifically created to trigger Republicans, conservatives and evangelical Christians into angrily sharing or commenting on the story on Facebook without actually reading the full article, exposing them to mockery and ridicule by fans of the sites and pages.
Every site in the network has an About page that reads (in part):
About Satire
Before you complain and decide satire is synonymous with "comedy":sat·ire
ˈsaˌtī(ə)r
noun
The use of humor, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticize people's stupidity or vices, particularly in the context of contemporary politics and other topical issues.Everything on this website is fiction. It is not a lie and it is not fake news because it is not real. If you believe that it is real, you should have your head examined. Any similarities between this site's pure fantasy and actual people, places, and events are purely coincidental and all images should be considered altered and satirical. See above if you're still having an issue with that satire thing.
Articles from Blair's sites frequently get copied by "real" fake news sites that omit the satire disclaimer and other hints the stories are fake. One of the most persistent networks of such sites is run by a man from Pakistan named Kashif Shahzad Khokhar (aka "DashiKashi"), who has spammed hundreds of such stolen stories into conservative and right-wing Facebook pages in order to profit from the ad revenue.
When fact checkers point this out to the people liking and sharing these copycat stories, some of them get mad at the fact checkers instead of directing their anger at the foreign spammers or the liberal satire writers. Others send a polite "thank you" note, which is much appreciated.
