I recently received a copy of a speech that Sen. Frank Moss gave before a national meeting of newspaper food editors in 1971. The speech, called “Business, the Consumer and You,” was in his papers at the University of Utah. He was concerned about the influence of advertisers on the content of the food sections. I found the talk much milder than the way the press covered it – several reporters referred to it as an “attack” on food editors. His tone is polite and focuses more on overall consumer issues. The “food editors” are not addressed until page 25 of a 32-page speech. (He refers to the editors as…

My guest post about food, feminism and Phyllis Diller was just posted to the blog, The Feminist Kitchen. In the post, I address the conflicts between cooking and feminism – a common but unspoken issue for women’s page editors. They had to walk a fine line between tradition and progress.

Today would have been television cook and cookbook author Julia Child’s 100th birthday. There were lots of great stories about her career in the media lately. And, a new biography about Julia was recently published. What I am beginning to look at is how Julia was covered by the food editors in the women’s sections of newspapers at the beginning of her career. It is unlikely that her career would have taken off like it did if not for favorable coverage in the women’s pages.