Media top headlines May 19
President Biden joking about running over a reporter and more round out today's top media headlines.
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.
The story on Lightfoot's commitment to only accepting interview requests from Black or Brown reporters broke Tuesday as NBC reporter Mary Ann Ahern relayed the announcement from the mayor's spokeswoman.
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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.
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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."
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"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.
Fox News' Joseph A. Wulfsohn contributed to this report.
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