Columnist's assignment: Nurse your kid in public

So I was skimming my usual journalism websites when I found this little item.

In short, it's about a Chicago columnist whose editor thought it would be nifty if she were to wander around breastfeeding in public so that she could write about it.

Here's a little excerpt:

Debra Pickett resigned from the Sun-Times Monday afternoon, minutes after being asked to do a story she thought was preposterous.

“I laughed,” says Pickett, recalling her response when features editor Christine Ledbetter called with the assignment to breast-feed her infant son in public places and write about it.

... The idea for the breast-feeding story came from editor-in-chief Michael Cooke, who says it was simply an idea -- a paper could no more assign such a story than it could assign a reporter to pose nude for an art class.

Oh. My. God.

Now, I have put the girls on (very discreet) display DURING assignments.

(Example: During a weeklong trip to New Orleans, I crouched in the backseat of our rental car two or three times a day, pumping milk, as a male photographer drove and my fellow reporter, Amy, watched for truck drivers and construction workers, who, from their vantage point, might be able to see into our vehicle. I nursed outside a wedding chapel when I took my eldest along for an interview. Parking lots? Been there. Mall benches? Done that.)

Never, however, have I been asked to bare my breasts FOR an assignment.

When, may I ask, has a male journalist ever been asked to haul out his boy parts for a column on ... say ... vasectomies? Or perhaps erectile dysfunction?

Can you feel the collective shudder in the newsroom budget meeting? I can.

Hey, I know! Let's ask our reporter-mamas to try a man-on-the-street approach: "Excuse me, sir? Will it bother you if I whip out my BREAST -- like this! -- so that I can gauge your immediate response to public nursing?"

Again: Oh. My. God.

And to think — I've spent years complaining about assignments involving the weather.