{"id":555822,"date":"2021-06-07T16:20:22","date_gmt":"2021-06-07T20:20:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=555822"},"modified":"2021-06-07T16:20:23","modified_gmt":"2021-06-07T20:20:23","slug":"lightfoots-attorneys-promise-to-clarify-policy-that-denied-interviews-to-white-journalists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/lightfoots-attorneys-promise-to-clarify-policy-that-denied-interviews-to-white-journalists\/","title":{"rendered":"Lightfoot\u2019s Attorneys Promise To Clarify Policy That Denied Interviews To White Journalists"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">24<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Flightfoots-attorneys-promise-to-clarify-policy-that-denied-interviews-to-white-journalists%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=555822&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/GettyImages-1150546762-scaled-e1619464615706.jpg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\"  style=\"display:none\"><\/div>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Attorneys for Chicago Democratic Mayor Lori Lightfoot said Monday they would provide a sworn declaration to clarify a policy that denied interviews to white journalists.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>During the Monday hearing related to a suit brought by the Daily Caller News Foundation and Judicial Watch, a district judge ordered Lightfoot\u2019s office to file within the week a declaration under oath about whether the mayor\u2019s policy allowing interviews solely to journalists of color is still in effect or will be in effect in the future. <\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>The suit alleged that Thomas Catenacci, a reporter for the DCNF, was denied an interview with Lightfoot after repeated inquiries to her office.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>\u201cThere is no evidence that this policy is not in effect,\u201d an attorney for Judicial Watch said, adding that Lightfoot\u2019s office \u201chasn\u2019t provided any non-racial reason as to why the interview has not been granted.\u201d<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>An attorney for Lightfoot\u2019s office responded that \u201cthe plaintiff has no evidence this policy is in effect.\u201d Lawyers for Judicial Watch replied that \u201cthere have been no statements or sworn testimony that the stated policy was rescinded.\u201d<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Attorneys for Chicago Democratic Mayor Lori Lightfoot said Monday they would provide a sworn declaration to clarify a policy that denied interviews to white journalists.<\/p>\n<p>During the Monday hearing related to a suit brought by the Daily Caller News Foundation and Judicial Watch, U.S. District Judge John Z. Lee ordered Lightfoot\u2019s office to file within the week a declaration under oath about whether the mayor\u2019s policy allowing interviews solely to journalists of color is still in effect or will be in effect in the future. The suit alleged that Thomas Catenacci, a reporter for the DCNF, was denied an interview with Lightfoot after repeated inquiries to her office.<\/p>\n<p>Judicial Watch sought an <a href=\"https:\/\/dailycaller.com\/2021\/06\/03\/chicago-judicial-watch-lori-lightfoot-first-amendement\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">injunction<\/a> last week asking the court to immediately end Lightfoot\u2019s policy, but the mayor\u2019s lawyers argued in the hearing Monday that it was unnecessary, saying the policy is not currently in effect. The plaintiffs disagreed, arguing that the mayor has not provided any evidence of that.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere is no evidence that this policy is not in effect,\u201d an attorney for Judicial Watch said, adding that Lightfoot\u2019s office \u201chasn\u2019t provided any non-racial reason as to why the interview has not been granted.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>An attorney for Lightfoot\u2019s office responded that \u201cthe plaintiff has no evidence this policy is in effect.\u201d Lawyers for Judicial Watch replied that \u201cthere have been no statements or sworn testimony that the stated policy was rescinded.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Lee disclosed at the start of the hearing that he and Lightfoot worked at the same law firm in the mid-1990s, but that their previous professional relationship did not present a conflict on interest. Attorneys for Lightfoot did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe look forward to Mayor Lightfoot\u2019s filing on Friday,\u201d Michael Bekesha, senior attorney at Judicial Watch, said in a statement. \u201cThe Court is requiring the Mayor to file a statement under oath about whether her racially discriminatory policy still applies to Catenacci\u2019s and the DCNF\u2019s interview request. More than two weeks later, we still haven\u2019t seen any evidence that it doesn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The suit was originally <a href=\"https:\/\/dailycaller.com\/2021\/05\/27\/daily-caller-news-foundation-lori-lightfoot-lawsuit\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">brought<\/a> on May 27, just over a week after Lightfoot announced the policy on Twitter May 19. Catenacci attempted to secure an interview on May 20, 21 and 24, according to the lawsuit. After repeated non-responses, Catenacci said there was \u201cno excuse\u201d for Lightfoot\u2019s policy.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere is no excuse for racial discrimination,\u201d Catenacci said. \u201cEvery day that goes by without the Mayor granting my interview request because of my race violates my rights and tramples on the First Amendment.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In a later interview on \u201cFox &#038; Friends,\u201d Catenacci added that he was shocked at the policy.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think that we shouldn\u2019t live in a country where anyone is treated worse than anyone else or given opportunities that anyone else is otherwise given solely because of race,\u201d Catenacci said. \u201cLike a lot of people out there, I was just really surprised that an elected official would do something like this.\u201d <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/dailycaller.com\/2021\/05\/28\/daily-caller-news-foundation-lawsuit-discuss-lori-lightfoot-chicago\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">(RELATED: DCNF Reporter Discusses Lawsuit Against Lori Lightfoot)<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>WATCH:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Lightfoot\u2019s policy has been widely condemned, including by journalists of color.<\/p>\n<p>One Latino reporter at the Chicago Tribune who was set to interview Lightfoot\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/dailycaller.com\/2021\/05\/20\/gregory-pratt-cancels-interview-lori-lightfight-discrimination\/\">backed out of the interview<\/a>\u00a0after the mayor refused to rescind her policy.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI asked the mayor\u2019s office to lift its condition on others and when they said no, we respectfully canceled,\u201d Tribune reporter Gregory Pratt\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/royalpratt\/status\/1395025840946262017?\">wrote on Twitter<\/a>. \u201cPoliticians don\u2019t get to choose who covers them.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact <a href=\"mailto:licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org\">licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Attorneys for Chicago Democratic Mayor Lori Lightfoot said Monday they would provide a sworn declaration to clarify a policy that denied interviews to white journalists. During the Monday hearing related &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2279504,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/GettyImages-1150546762-scaled-e1619464615706.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"Lightfoot\u2019s Attorneys Promise To Clarify Policy That Denied Interviews To White Journalists","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-555822","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/GettyImages-1150546762-scaled-e1619464615706.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"Lightfoot\u2019s Attorneys Promise To Clarify Policy That Denied Interviews To White Journalists","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/555822","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=555822"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/555822\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2279504"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=555822"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=555822"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=555822"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}