Journalism wasn’t necessarily in the cards for NPR’s Lori Lizarraga. But one day she found herself in the wrong classroom while attending Southern Methodist University in Texas. She watched as broadcast journalism students toiled away on the school’s daily newscast.
“And the technical director turns around, takes off his headphones and is like, 'Close the door!’” Lizarraga remembered.
She felt her hair whip into the air from the heft of the studio door shutting. “And I'm like, ‘What was that?’ Like, I just stepped into Narnia.”
Lizarraga never did find that class she was signed up for, but she did find her calling – and she has been telling stories ever since. A lot of that work is informed by her cultural identity as an Eucadoran-Mexican-American. Staying true to those roots and to her community, though, has come at a cost.
In 2021, Lizarraga’s contract with 9 News in Denver wasn’t renewed.
“I was the most effective community journalist I had ever been, and I knew I was going to lose my job,” she wrote in Westword shortly after.
Lizarraga has been vocal about the discrimination she says led to her ousting — she was one of three Latina journalists let go from the news station in less than a year — and how it interfered with her reporting on marginalized people, such as immigrant communities.
She says speaking out about the situation was only natural — it was what she had been trained to do as a journalist.
“It was my way of holding my newsroom and the news industry accountable in a way that we are told, as journalists, we’re supposed to do with every other entity that we get the chance to,” she said.
For example, she took a stand against how her newsroom described immigrants, like the use of the word "illegal."
Lizarraga’s courage in discussing what happened ultimately spurred new standards for immigration coverage within dozens of Tegna newsrooms, like the one she left in Denver.
In a statement emailed to In the NoCo, 9 News said it is “committed to serving and reflecting our entire community.” The news station pointed to newer positions in its newsroom, like a race and culture journalist, race and culture executive producer, and an executive director of community engagement. It said 9 News is also conducting training and content audits and listening sessions with community members.
In some ways, Lizarraga’s work today is a continent away from her struggles at 9 News. As a host for NPR’s Code Switch podcast, Lizarraga has the freedom to meticulously unpack and acknowledge how race and culture underpin just about everything in America. She has the same goal — but her focus is deeper, more nuanced. She traces it all back to her previous challenges.
“The catalyst for that was absolutely the struggle of being a Latina, of being a first-gen reporter in a local news market in Denver,” she said.
To wrap up our celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month, host Erin O'Toole spoke with the Code Switch host about how race, cultural identity, and lived experience are inextricably woven into the fabric of her work.
