Lightfoot Says No More White Reporters Will Be Allowed Interviews


Democratic Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot is standing her ground on the controversial decision to not allow White reporters to cover her events, claiming the underwhelming number of the journalists of color covering her was “unacceptable.” She also said she wasn’t sorry for her opinions and would say it again if need be.

Lightfoot incited criticism when she declared she would only allow Black and Brown reporters one-on-one interviews while scolding the Chicago media for its “overwhelming Whiteness.”

“I would absolutely do it again. I’m unapologetic about it because it spurred a very important conversation, a conversation that needed to happen, that should have happened a long time ago,” Lightfoot Kara Swisher, host of “Sway,” during an interview.

“Here is the bottom line for me, to state the obvious, I’m a Black woman mayor. I’m the mayor of the third-largest city in the country, obviously I have a platform, and it’s important to me to advocate on things that I believe are important,” she said. “Going back to why I ran, to disrupt the status quo. The media is critically important to our democracy … the media is in a time of incredible upheaval and disruption but our City hall press corps looks like it’s 1950 or 1970.”

Lightfoot argued that reporters who typically show up to her events are “invariably overwhelmingly White” and pressured media organizations to change their approach.

“People that make the hiring decisions have to be focused on diversity,” said the mayor. “In Chicago, we have a huge amount of diverse media talent. We’ve got schools that are of journalism that are best in class across the country, and I would say, really, across the world. So the absence of journalists of color, covering the mayor of the third-largest city in a country is absolutely unacceptable. And so I decided to say something about it.”

Swisher recognized diversity as an issue but opposed to politicians choosing the individual covering them.

“No, it’s not about me choosing who covers me, right? I gave exclusive interviews. And we do get to choose who we talk to in exclusives. I gave exclusive interviews with journalists of color, right? One 24-hour period and it was like people’s heads exploded. I had journalists saying, ‘Does the mayor think I’m racist?’ No, it’s not about individuals,” she said. “It’s about systemic racism.”

Lightfoot insisted she was simply telling it like it was.

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