Story at a glance
- Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot (D) said she would only give one-on-one media interviews to reporters of color “on the occasion of the two-year anniversary” to promote diversity.
- The lawsuit claims Lightfoot violated Daily Caller reporter Thomas Catenacci’s First and Fourteenth Amendment rights.
- “Every journalist and every person who consumes the news should be concerned by Mayor Lightfoot’s actions,” Catenacci, who is white, said in a statement.
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot (D) is being hit with a federal lawsuit over her decision to grant one-on-one media interviews only to people of color to mark her two-year anniversary in office.
Conservative government watchdog Judicial Watch filed the lawsuit on behalf of the Daily Caller News Foundation and reporter Thomas Catenacci, who is white.
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The lawsuit alleges Lightfoot violated Catenacci’s equal protection rights under the Fourteenth Amendment when she didn’t respond to his three requests for interviews, as well as his First Amendment rights. The complaint claims the lack of response in a “timely manner” was in effect a denial.
“Preventing journalists from doing our jobs in such a blatantly discriminatory way is wrong and does a disservice to our readers who come from all backgrounds,” Catenacci said in a statement.
“Every journalist and every person who consumes the news should be concerned by Mayor Lightfoot’s actions. This affects everyone. I look forward to holding the mayor accountable,” he said.
The lawsuit comes more than a week after the mayor said she would only give one-on-one media interviews to reporters of color “on the occasion of the two-year anniversary” of her inauguration as mayor in an effort to promote diversity and inclusion. The policy was only in effect for interviews related to her anniversary.
“As a person of color, I have throughout my adult life done everything that I can to fight for diversity and inclusion in every institution that I have been a part of and being Mayor makes me uniquely situated to shine a spotlight on this most important issue,” she said in an open letter.
“I have been struck since my first day on the campaign trail back in 2018 by the overwhelming whiteness of maleness of Chicago media outlets, editorial boards, the political press corps, and yes, the City Hall press corps specifically,” she said.
Despite her intentions, the move sparked criticism and pushback from local journalists.
One Chicago Tribune journalist decided not to move forward with a scheduled interview with Lightfoot in protest.
“I am a Latino reporter @chicagotribune whose interview request was granted for today. However, I asked the mayor’s office to lift its condition on others and when they said no, we respectfully canceled,” Gregory Pratt tweeted.
“Politicians don’t get to choose who covers them,” he added.
A spokeswoman for City Hall’s Law Department said the city has not had the opportunity to review the complaint and it has not yet been served.
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