Leah wrote about this a while back. Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot has a ‘no whites’ policy for interviews. Some members of the local press corps who are nonwhite have refused to participate. Gregory Pratt, who is a Hispanic reporter for the Chicago Tribune, wrote, “I am a Latino reporter…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. Politicians don’t get to choose who covers them.”
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. Politicians don’t get to choose who covers them. https://t.co/YMW8M8ZgJm
— Gregory Pratt (@royalpratt) May 19, 2021
Of course, this type of discrimination is okay, but it’s in the name of diversity. Jim Crow in reverse is okay because of…diversity. Segregated dormitories on college campuses, which rings of apartheid, is okay because of…diversity. Scott Whitlock at Newsbusters noted that it’s not shocking as to why no major network has reported on this new interview policy from the mayor’s office, but you can always count on CNN to provide some spin (via Newsbusters):
The mayor of Chicago has instituted a racist new policy, saying she will only give one-on-one interviews to Black or Brown journalists. The shocking and blatantly discriminatory move has been buried by network press. So far, ABC, CBS and NBC have totally ignored the story and CNN has allowed minimal coverage, but defending Lori Lightfoot’s move as a win for diversity and that no one should be “troubled” by it. MSNBC also has been MIA in coverage.
[…]
[CNN] Host John Berman brought on liberal Chicago Sun Times reporter Lynn Sweet on. She dismissed the segregationist policy as perfectly fine
[…]
Sweet hailed the action as nothing more than diversity in action: “For one day, she's trying to shake everybody up and shine a spotlight on the lack of diversity in the City Hall press corps…. Chicago is a very diverse city when newsrooms are not.”
[…]
JOHN BERMAN: Well, some people are playing it -- so, you know, some people are playing it basically as no whites allowed. That's how it's being portrayed, as you can imagine, on an entire cable network.
LYNN SWEET: Absolutely, and I see what's happening and I see how the right-wing press is playing this. But everybody take a deep breath. That's not what is happening.
Well, CNN lied about Russian collusion. They lied about how the Wuhan lab leak theory was tin foil hat nonsense regarding coronavirus. Not really taking their word, not that you should have anyway.