Recently, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot (D) revealed her policy to grant one-on-one media interviews solely to people of color.
The decision to grant access to journalists and reporters of color isn’t sitting well with some. The Daily Caller filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois over this policy.
“Defendant is aware that Plaintiff Catenacci is not a ‘journalist of color,’ and Defendant has denied Plaintiff’s interview request pursuant to her announcement that she will only grant interview requests from ‘journalists of color,'” the suit states.
Lightfoot defended her stance during an interview with CNN. The Chicago Mayor believes she’s starting a long and overdue process of media outlets diversifying their staff and news coverage.
“Here’s the thing: I’m the mayor of the third-largest city in the country. I’m an African American woman, to state the obvious. Every day when I look out across my podium, I don’t see people who look like me. But more to the point, I don’t see people who reflect the richness and diversity of the city,” Lightfoot said.
“You all are the mirrors on society. You reflect with a critical and important lens the news of the day. You hold public officials like me accountable. You must be diverse. It can’t be that in the city of Chicago with all of the talent that we have that we can’t find diverse journalists of color.”
Eduardo Razo is the Assistant Content Editor for BNM, which includes writing daily news stories on the news media industry. He can be found on Twitter @eddierazo_ or you can reach him by email at eddie1991razo@gmail.com.
