(WBBM NEWSRADIO) — Mayor Lori Lightfoot is getting more fallout from her controversial decision to grant interviews only to journalists of color last week.
White reporter Thomas Catenacci and his employer, Daily Caller News Foundation, were named as plaintiffs in a suit filed late this week in federal court. The conservative organization Judicial Watch filed the complaint, which said Catenacci’s constitutional First Amendment rights and rights to equal protection were violated.
The lawsuit says the reporter last week began requesting an interview to ask the mayor questions about COVID-19 vaccinations in the city. His emailed requests were not answered, the suit says.
This was as Lightfoot was marking her second year in office and temporarily granting one-on-ones to minority journalists exclusively.
The mayor, who is Black, said she was making a point that the Chicago City Hall press corps should be more diverse. Some journalists of color, however, on social media criticized the mayor's strategy.
Not all journalists of color who requested interviews with the mayor got them.
The suit seeks a judge to compel Lightfoot’s cooperation for an interview with Catenacci and “attorney’s fees and any other litigation costs reasonably incurred.”
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