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Mayor Lori Lightfoot recently revealed that she would only be doing interviews with journalists of color in an attempt to combat the issue of primarily white and male audiences at City Hall press conferences. One reporter, however, has filed a discrimination lawsuit against Lightfoot after his request for an interview was denied.
According to TMZ, Thomas Catenacci, a reporter for a conservative news outlet called The Daily Caller, has filed a lawsuit against Mayor Lightfoot, claiming that her new policy to only grant one-on-one interviews with journalists of color is racist.
TMZ obtained the legal documents, in which Catenacci claims he submitted an interview request on May 20th, and sent two follow up emails in regard to an interview with Mayor Lightfoot. Catenacci claims he received no responses, but says he noticed Lightfoot granted one interview request to a Latino reporter.
Catenacci claims Lightfoot’s policy is discriminatory and a violation of his First Amendment right of freedom of the press.
Mayor Lightfoot released an announcement to explain the new policy and he reasoning behind putting it into place. She stated that fighting for diversity and inclusion has been the backbone of her adult life, and explained that the policy is intended to do just that.
“In the time since I was elected, our country has faced an historic reckoning around systemic racism,” she wrote. “Organizations, corporations, educational institutions and more all across our city, our country have declared new efforts to address the deep-seated legacies of institutional racism. In looking at the absence of diversity across the City Hall press corps and other newsrooms, sadly it does not appear that many of. the media institutions in Chicago have caught on and truly have not embraced this moment.”
Catenacci is not looking for any damages in the suit, but is asking a judge to order Mayor Lightfoot to get rid of the policy.
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