Lori Lightfoot Steps on a Rake Explaining Her Racist Policy of Excluding White Reporters From Interviews

When Lori Lightfoot decides to double down on the stupid, she does so with a bang.

As evidence, on Monday the Chicago mayor informed MSNBC anchor Stephanie Ruhle that after a year of “trusting the science” on CDC recommendations about mask-wearing and social distancing that she was now questioning the science behind the CDC updating its guidelines for fully vaccinated individuals and would be encouraging Chicagoans to continue masking and social distancing as she says she will.

And just yesterday, we learned from multiple Chicago area reporters that Lightfoot was implementing what could only be described as a racist policy on who she would allow to interview her on the topic of her two year anniversary as the Windy City’s mayor.

“As ⁦@chicagosmayor reaches her two year midway point as mayor, her spokeswoman says Lightfoot is granting 1 on 1 interviews – only to Black or Brown journalists,” NBC Chicago’s Mary Ann Ahern tweeted.

In response to the outrage that ensued over the reports, Lightfoot took to the Twitter machine this morning to try and paint herself as a courageous leader doing her part to correct a supposed problem with diversity in Chicago’s establishment media.

As you read this, remember that this woman is the mayor of one of the largest cities in America and that her election was viewed by the left as evidence that great strides were being made in getting the public to view black, female, lesbian women as smart, capable leaders:

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

How ironic is it that a message on how “we must be intentional about doing better’ is being uttered by a woman who routinely fails at her job, and often in a rather spectacular fashion?

Like I said earlier, when she goes dumb, she really jumps into it wholeheartedly and without reservation.

Lightfoot could just as easily grant interviews with a diverse group of reporters that include black and Hispanic reporters as well as white ones, but instead, she’s choosing to punish members of the press in Chicago – some of them who are veteran journalists in the city – for the sin of being born white.

I suspect what’s really behind Lightfoot’s move is a media avoidance strategy a la President Biden and Vice President Harris where she’s picking and choosing journos who she feels might be friendlier to her while trying to avoid the rest who may ask a tough question or two. But I can’t say that with certainty since I’m not up and up on the particulars of the reporters who regularly ask questions of Chicago politicians.

While I’m not familiar with the intricate details of the racial composition of Chicago reporters, this policy strikes me as a poor (not to mention highly hypocritical) way of trying to level an allegedly un-level playing field. You don’t proclaim to be a champion of diversity and then turn around and announce you are excluding certain groups from the privilege of interviewing you. This is true of random prominent figures, but it goes double for elected officials who have an obligation to answer questions from the press no matter the color of the journalist making the inquiry.

Then again, Lightfoot is a Democrat and one who is just following the lead of others in her party who have made it a bad habit over the years to not practice what they preach because they know they can get away with it. So no surprises here, really.

Same crap, different day. But infuriating all the same.