Column: Mayor Lori Lightfoot is correct: Newsrooms need more diversity
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Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot shocked the nation on Wednesday when she announced that she would only grant one-on-one interviews regarding the second anniversary of her inauguration to journalists of color.
We have never heard a politician make such a pronouncement out loud. But believe me, as an African American who has been working in the newspaper industry for more than 40 years, such decisions are made routinely in favor of white journalists. Public officials just do it quietly without saying a word.
It’s a dirty little secret within our industry that African American journalists don’t normally get the plum assignments. We aren’t regularly assigned to political campaigns. We generally don’t get to cover Washington, statehouses or City Hall.
Of course, there will always be a handful of journalists of color who manage to break through the barrier, but political press pools always have been overwhelmingly white.
During her first two years in office, this became painfully obvious to a mayor who is part of two minority groups being African American and gay. She decided to take a stand by doing something that probably never would have occurred to a white mayor.
I commend her for that. In the past, African Americans have been forced to accept the crumbs that were handed to us, but here’s someone willing to say, “I’ll give you the entire pie.” We should not walk away from that offer.
The timing of her move is suspect, however, given that it was recently reported that she canceled her subscription to the Tribune because of what she deemed to be unfair coverage. But on the issue of diversity, she is correct.
The next two years leading up to reelection will be tough, but if she thinks journalists of color would be easier on her, she is sorely mistaken.
It’s true that mayors don’t get to choose who covers City Hall, but they do get to decide with whom they will share information. Those who argue that her decision is discriminatory likely never had a problem when former Mayor Rahm Emanuel constantly gave news scoops to their white newsroom colleagues.
Lightfoot isn’t saying this is going to be a standard policy for the rest of her tenure. She’s making a choice about a single story regarding her first two years as mayor. Even without a one-on-one interview, journalists will still be able to report a comprehensive piece based on her record.
Journalists of color have never sought special treatment. African Americans who have experienced the rise and fall of affirmative action in this country over the years have long been satisfied just asking for a level playing field.
In her letter to news organizations on Wednesday, Lightfoot said that throughout her adult life she has done everything she could to fight for diversity and inclusion in every institution she has been a part of. As mayor, she said she felt uniquely situated to highlight inequities within Chicago newsrooms.
“I have been struck since my first day on the campaign trail back in 2018 by the overwhelming whiteness and maleness of Chicago media outlets, editorial boards, the political press corps, and yes, the City Hall press corps specifically,” she said.
“Indeed, there are only a handful of beat reporters of color in the City Hall press corps. While there are women of color who sometimes cover my administration, there are zero women of color assigned to the City Hall beat. Zero. I find this unacceptable and I hope you do too.”
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WBEZ disputed the mayor’s observation, reporting that two of its three City Hall reporters are women — one Hispanic and the other South Asian. The larger problem, however, exists. It persisted long before Lightfoot arrived at City Hall, and it has been one of many diversity issues that journalists of color have been fighting to correct within their newsrooms for decades.
The lack of diversity on newsroom staffs and in management positions has long plagued the Chicago Tribune. But it isn’t unique to Chicago. It has been a long-standing goal of the National Association of Black Journalists as well as other journalism organizations, such as the American Society of News Editors.
When I arrived at the Tribune in 1989, there were at least twice as many African Americans on staff than there are today. Retaining talented journalists of color has become increasingly difficult as newsrooms downsize. Talented African American and Latino journalists often leave because they see no path for advancement.
Last year, Nieman Lab, a publication of the Nieman Foundation at Harvard University, compiled tweets by journalists of color who took to social media to discuss the systemic racism and discrimination they experience in newsrooms.
The consensus is that America’s newsrooms have a serious race problem. Across America, print, broadcast and internet publishing industries are overwhelmingly white and male.
More than three-quarters of newsroom employees — reporters, editors, photographers and videographers — are non-Hispanic whites, compared with about two-thirds all U.S. workers, according to a 2018 study by the Pew Research Center.
About 6 in 10 newsroom employees are men, compared with 53% of all workers.
In 1978, the American Society of News Editors set a goal of diversifying newsrooms to the meet the percentage of minorities within the national population by the year 2000. Currently, racial and ethnic minorities comprise 40% of the U.S. population.
The organization failed miserably. Most news organizations didn’t even bother to return the hiring surveys.
Lightfoot has issued a challenge to Chicago newsroom mangers responsible for hiring and retaining journalists of color to do better.
“Hire reporters of color — and especially women of color — to cover Chicago politics, and City Hall in particular,” she said. “If you only have a white reporter covering City Hall, make sure there’s a person of color working with them as well.”
Some might call the mayor’s efforts discriminatory. Some would say she is favoring journalists based on their race, which is the very thing Black journalists have complained about for years.
They will argue that journalists of color deserve better than that. Indeed, we have never asked to be placed at the top of the hierarchy. All we wanted was equal standing.
But things are so racially imbalanced in America — and within the journalism profession — that it will take bold efforts to bring us to a point of equality.
So, when a public official decides to give journalists of color a news scoop that traditionally has gone to white journalists, maybe we should say, “Thank you” and write the best darn story we can.
Twitter @dahleeng
