What? Fox's 'Chicago' (Naperville) Diner Segment Was A Set Up?

They really just can't stop themselves from lying about Chicago.

Last week, Fox and Friends sent reporter Gianno Caldwell to a totally random Chicago diner to see how some totally random customers there were feeling about the recently inaugurated Mayor Brandon Johnson.

Except it wasn't a Chicago diner, it was a Naperville diner an hour outside of the City of Chicago. I am but a transplant here, but one thing I can tell you is that Chicagoans are very particular about who gets to say they are from Chicago and it is not people who live in the Chicago suburbs. It's not like Massachusetts where everyone in Massachusetts and sometimes the surrounding states just says they're from Boston when talking to people outside of New England.

This time, however, the outrage was totally valid, because Naperville is literally an hour away. They had to go an hour outside of the city of Chicago to find a diner where they could talk to people, despite the fact that the city of Chicago is in fact replete with diners.

By sheer coincidence, Gianno Caldwell found some diners from actual Chicago!

“Breakfast with ‘Friends’: Gianno Caldwell talks new Chicago mayor with diners Gianno Caldwell asks diners their reaction to Brandon Johnson being sworn in as Chicago Mayor. Segment: https://t.co/SdXTNtrDfj”

— Gianno Caldwell (@Gianno Caldwell) 1684269319 

 Also by sheer coincidence, the person he spoke to was Lavondale “Big Dale” Glass, the assistant director of violence prevention for Project H.O.O.D., a non-profit that endorsed Johnson's opponent, Paul Vallas, in the last election. The other man sitting with him was Andre Smith, the C.E.O of Chicago Against Violence. Smith had been involved directly with the Vallas campaign, but Glass had not.

When asked what he thought of Johnson, Glass said "I think it’s a fluke, I don’t think he’s gonna do any better than Lori Lightfoot, I have no confidence in him, he’s already coming in the gate saying the wrong thing. Like uh, we had to leave the South Side to go to the North Side, thinking that my son would be safe there and he still was murdered. So I don’t see anything turning better from Brandon Johnson."

The clip, unsurprisingly, lit up more than a few Chicagoans, who are all very sick and tired of Fox News trying to drag our city as some den of violence when there are 19 other cities with higher crime rates than ours, many of them in red states. No one was too happy either about the visit to a Naperville diner when people in Naperville do not vote in Chicago elections and in fact have their own damn mayor.

Caldwell defended this online by saying that people from Chicago who voted in the last election were in the diner with him. Because who wouldn't go to a random Naperville diner and just assume that several people from Chicago had driven an hour outside of the city just to get breakfast at Rosies' Home Cooking and would be there that morning? Surely this was just as good of a plan as going to one of the many, many diners in the city — about 9 in my own neighborhood that I can think of off the top of my head.

“People from Chicago, who voted in the last Chicago election, were in the restaurant and on air with me.”

— Gianno Caldwell (@Gianno Caldwell) 1684271684 

Except it wasn't by sheer coincidence. Not even remotely. The men have since told Chicago-based news site  The TRiiBE   that they were asked to be there and were not told they were going to be asked about Mayor Johnson, but rather that they were going to be discussing the problem of violence andthe murder of Glass's son Keion in a shooting in the neighborhood of Avondale. The questions about Johnson came as a complete surprise.

In interviews with The TRiiBE , both Glass and Smith said they were surprised by Caldwell’s question about Johnson. “I was upset that he asked me that question,” Glass told The TRiiBE . “And it kind of caught me off guard, because I’m still upset about my son.” He added, “I don’t think anything will change, about any of the politicians, him or Vallas.”

Glass repeatedly emphasized that he didn’t oppose Johnson, but was skeptical of elected officials’ ability to solve violence at the street level.

“Don’t take me up to be like I’m against Brandon Johnson,” Glass told The TRiiBE. “He’s a Black man; I hope he does well. Make sure you put that in” this story. “We’re gonna wait and give him a chance.” He reiterated that he doesn’t have faith in politicians.

I also tend to find it better to err on the side of not having faith in politicians and then being pleasantly surprised when they do something good. I'm also very happy that Brandon Johnson is our mayor. Two things can be true!

It's very clear what Caldwell was trying to do here. He was trying to make it look as though Black people from the South Side had wanted Vallas and felt like Brandon Johnson was going to make things worse. Of course, if they really believed that, they would have gone to a diner in Bronzeville or somewhere. They didn't.

This is not the first time in recent history that Fox has lied about Chicago in order to further their weird anti-Chicago agenda. They do it all the time. Just recently, they ran a whole segment claiming that a "luxury hotel" was turning away "American citizens" in order to house refugees, when in fact the city had just placed several refugees at a hotel that has been closed for two years and won't open for another month.

If you are so inclined, some pretty cool Chicago folks were so inspired by the segment that they designed some pretty cool " Shut The Fuck Up About Chicago" t-shirts and you can buy themhere and here if you like.

 Do your Amazon shopping through this link, because reasons .

Wonkette is independent and fully funded by readers like you. Click below to tip us!