Co-host Mike Barnicle asked Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot on Thursday’s broadcast of “Morning Joe” why the shooting by actor Alec Baldwin last week on a movie set has gotten more media coverage than the gun violence in her city.
Barnicle said, “Mayor Lightfoot, I’m sure you’re aware of the massive amount of publicity given by the media to a single murder in the desert outside of Santa Fe, New Mexico, on a movie set featuring Alec Baldwin. How does it strike you when you see such massive publicity given to this story when every day in Chicago, the combination of gangs, guns, and young people dying is a, sadly, everyday occurrence, given very little note?”
Lightfoot responded, “What I’d like to see more of is recognizing the human toll that is taken with the guns and violence that we’re experiencing in Chicago and in cities across the country. The victims are forgotten. We can’t forget them.”
She added, “But I’d like to see the media tell those stories and not just report statistics like they’re calling a ballgame. It is disheartening to victims. I meet with victims’ groups on a regular basis. And the heartache that they experience, the devastation and losing a loved one and being injured themselves, I’d like to see more of those stories told because they’re real and the trauma that they experience for a lifetime is real.”
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