Latino reporter cancels Lori Lightfoot interview following refusal to lift moratorium based on skin color
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Chicago Tribune reporter Gregory Pratt announced Wednesday that he had canceled his scheduled interview with Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot over her office's refusal to lift a moratorium on interviews with non-Black or Brown reporters.
Pratt, a Latino reporter who was granted an interview with the mayor after the policy became publicly known, took to social media to announce the cancellation.
According to Pratt, he asked the mayor's office to lift the condition on other reporters, but it declined. "Politicians don't get to choose who covers them," he tweeted.
Fox News reported Tuesday that it was unclear exactly when Lightfoot's office began the practice. It was also unclear if it applied only to local reporters, considering Lightfoot appeared Monday on MSNBC for an interview with host Stephanie Ruhle .
Many journalists expressed outrage at the practice and voiced support for Pratt, with some calling for other reporters to take the same action.
Lightfoot tried to address concerns Wednesday over the practice.
"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," she tweeted. "Diversity and inclusion is imperative across all institutions including media."
"In order to progress we must change. 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," she said.
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Governor Wallace has relocated to the shores of Lake Michigan in 2021.
How racist do you have to be be to be removed as Mayor of Chicago? Lightfoot's trying to find out.
There have been over 1200 shootings in chicago so far this year, and the year isn’t quite half over. Orkin just named chicago the most rat infested city in the US. She needs to drop this racial bullshit and get her ass in gear and work for the citizens of chicago. What an embarrassment.
Chicago didn't even make the top 30 in the deadliest cities in America, not sure why the right wing always refers to it. Oh yea, it was a talking point a few years back...carry on.
Not sure why you would use outdated data to try and make a point. Here's are numbers from 2020
CHICAGO (WLS) -- New data obtained by the ABC7 I-Team reveals a disturbing crime trend across the nation and especially in Chicago. The latest violent crime stats for the first six months of 2020 compiled by the FBI and analyzed by the I-Team show while overall violent crime is down slightly, the number of murders is up significantly.
Even amid the COVID-19 pandemic, and an overall reduction in violent crime, the harsh reality is that there were more murders this year than last. New FBI data shows that murders here in Chicago spiked by more than 37% compared with the same period of 2019, and far outpaces the 14.8% average increase nationwide.
Murders skyrocketing in the middle of a lockdown. That's Chicago....
Because some dumb shit racists are desperate to further any other narrative besides "we're fucking white racists who are steeped in the prejudices of our grandpappys but don't want to admit it it for fear we won't be taken seriously...".
What if a white mayor acted like that?
They would have zero political future.
some might say it is outrageous behavior
Only y'all say it is outrageous behavior.
Nobody expects you to find racism outrageous.
Mayor Whitefoot tried to address concerns Wednesday over the practice.
"I ran to break up the threat to the status quo that was failing so many whites. That isn't just in City Hall. It's a shame that in 2021, the City Hall press corps is overwhelmingly black in a city where more than half of the city identifies as white, white-Latino, WAAPI or White-Native American," he tweeted. "A lack of diversity and exclusion are imperative across all institutions including media."
"In order to progress we mustn't change. This is exactly why I'm being intentional about prioritizing media requests from white reporters on the occasion of the two-year anniversary of my inauguration as mayor of this great city," he said.
Is this somehow not racist? Why doesn’t this inspire nationwide outrage?
It's one of the more shocking stories I've seen. It's so ham handily racist that it's almost impossible to believe a politician in a major city would even consider it. I doubt the mayor of podunnkville population 20 would be that stupid, even if they are as racist as Lightfoot.