Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot is reportedly being sued by The Daily Caller and Judicial Watch a week after publicly saying she would only allow Black and Brown reporters to interview her one-on-one.
“It’s absurd that an elected official believes she can discriminate on the basis of race,” Daily Caller editor-in-chief Ethan Barton said in a statement.
“Mayor Lightfoot’s decision is clearly blocking press freedom through racial discrimination.”
According to the Federal complaint, Mayor Lightfoot violated reporter Thomas Catenacci’s First Amendment rights and right to equal protection under the 14th Amendment.
Based on the lawsuit, posted on the Judicial Watch website, Lightfoot violated reporter Thomas Catenacci’s First Amendment rights and right to equal protection under the 14th Amendment. Although it doesn’t specify that the mayor’s office outright denied Catenacci based on his race, it says three email requests were never answered over the last week. The lack of a response in a “timely manner” was in effect a denial, the complaint claims.
Back Story
Previously reported, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot received mixed reactions for making the decision to only allow Black and Brown reporters to interview her one-on-one. In a series of tweets, Lightfoot explained her goal is to raise awareness of the lack of diversity in newsrooms.
Lightfoot also put emphasis on the need for local media to reflect the people in the communities. Reiterating her point of the lack of diversity in newsrooms across the nation n.
In a two-page-letter to the media, Lightfoot reflected on her campaign trail and being struck “by the overwhelming whiteness and maleness of Chicago media outlets, editorial boards, the political press corps, and yes, the City Hall press corps specifically.”
The Chicago Mayor also encouraged media outlets to hire more people of color and women.
“It is too heavy a burden…to have to take on the labor of educating white, mostly male members of the news media about the perils and complexities of implicit bias,” she wrote. “This isn’t my job. It shouldn’t be.”
In reaction to the news, the National Association of Black Journalists, issued a statemen
“I hope managers in newsrooms big and small get the message. Political units must include different perspectives and life experiences in order to move diverse stories to the forefront,” tweeted NABJ President Dorothy Tucker.
