Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot is doubling down after her controversial decision to grant interview requests only to reporters of color.
“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 told the New York Times.
The mayor celebrated her second year in office in May with her office telling multiple reporters that she would do one-on-one interviews only with “Black or Brown journalists.”
“Here is the bottom line for me: To state the obvious, I’m a Black woman mayor,” she said. “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. 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.”
The mayor was sued by Judicial Watch, which represented The Daily Caller News Foundation and its reporter Thomas Catenacci, who alleged Lightfoot had violated their First Amendment rights.
“Mayor Lightfoot discriminated against journalists based upon their race,” Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said in a press release. “Judicial Watch has repeatedly requested that Lightfoot sign a consent decree agreeing not to use race-based criteria for interview requests for the remainder of her time in office.”
Fox News host Tucker Carlson, who founded The Daily Caller, slammed Lightfoot “a monster” and racist.
“The fact that the City Hall press corps is overwhelmingly white, has very little in the way of diversity, is an embarrassment,” Lightfoot said. “One day out of 365, I say that I’m going to mark the anniversary of my two years in office by giving exclusive one-on-ones to journalists of color, and the world loses its mind.”
