Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot Defends Excluding White Journalists: ‘Systemic Racism’ in Media

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot attempted to defend her racist interview policy on Wednesday, explaining why she would only give interviews to “journalists of color” and exclude white journalists on the occasion of her two-year anniversary in office.

In a letter to news organizations, and in a series of tweets, Lightfoot claimed there was a racial “imbalance” in the news media, especially in the City Hall press corps, and that she wanted to use her position to force journalism to become more diverse.

I ran to break up the status quo that was failing so many. That isn’t just in City Hall.

It’s a shame that in 2021, the City Hall press corps is overwhelmingly White in a city where more than half of the city identifies as Black, Latino, AAPI or Native American.

— Mayor Lori Lightfoot (@chicagosmayor) May 19, 2021

Diversity and inclusion is imperative across all institutions including media. In order to progress we must change.

— Mayor Lori Lightfoot (@chicagosmayor) May 19, 2021

This is exactly why I’m being intentional about prioritizing media requests from POC reporters on the occasion of the two-year anniversary of my inauguration as mayor of this great city.

— Mayor Lori Lightfoot (@chicagosmayor) May 19, 2021

This is an imbalance that needs to change. Chicago is a world-class city. Our local media should reflect the multiple cultures that comprise it.

— Mayor Lori Lightfoot (@chicagosmayor) May 19, 2021

We must be intentional about doing better. I believed that when running for office. I stand on this belief now. It’s time for the newsrooms to do better and build teams that reflect the make-up of our city.

— Mayor Lori Lightfoot (@chicagosmayor) May 19, 2021

In her letter, reported by CBS Chicago affiliate WTTW, Lightfoot cited the county’s “historic reckoning around systemic racism” and suggested that the media in Chicago suffered from “institutionalized racism.” She complained that as the city’s first black, female, and lesbian mayor, the journalists assigned to cover her were “practically all white,” adding: “I find this unacceptable.”

CBS Chicago asked: “In Chicago there is a crime crisis, an unemployment and now a worker crisis, among other issues. The three arguably most powerful politicians in Chicago — Lightfoot, Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle and State’s Attorney Kim Foxx — are all African American woman. One is openly gay. So is this the time for a diversity lecture?”

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the new e-book, We Told You So!: The First 100 Days of Joe Biden’s Radical Presidency. His recent book, RED NOVEMBER, tells the story of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary from a conservative perspective. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.