Reporter Cancels Interview With Chicago Mayor Over New Policy ‘Prioritizing’ Non-White Reporters

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A Chicago reporter said Wednesday he cancelled an interview with the city’s mayor after she declined to end a policy of “prioritizing” non-White reporters.

“I am a Latino reporter [for] @ChicagoTribune whose interview request was granted for today,” the Tribune’s Gregory Pratt wrote on Twitter. “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

City Mayor Lori Lightfoot (D) announced the new policy on Wednesday, writing in a statement, “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.

“Diversity and inclusion is imperative across all institutions including media,” she added. “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.”

Lightfoot, a Democrat, was first elected to her post in 2019.