And??? What’s the story here???
First of all, maybe she isn't a very good writer? Seriously - maybe AIDS in Africa is beyond her capabilities? Sure, such an article pigeonholes her in writing about family, but maybe that is what she is good at and maybe her boss recognizes that?
What is wrong with writing about breast feeding in public? Sure – it may not be her thing, but you make it sound like the editor is going to sit over her shoulder hoping to get a peek. I know to my wife and our friends, it is an important issue and they would like to see it practiced and discussed more. And, who else are they going to get to write such an article? I would think that a woman who is lactating would be the first that you would call, but I’m not in the news-biz.
As for her not getting in contact with her managing editor, according to the article in the Reader she was “trying to reach him all day”. WOW – She gave them a whole day? Did she start calling at 8:00am or wait till 9:00am? Please…I spend a whole week trying to get 5 minutes with my boss.
Must be a slow news day to post this.

What happened to Pickett is not an isolated event, but part of a long pattern of pigeon-holing female reporters and columnists into doing only "women's stories." Pickett probably thought that at a big paper like the Sun-Times, she could write about women's issues and still be free to write about other issues. She was wrong, and she learned the hard way.

This story, like all news stories, occurs within a sociological context, and this is one context with which you do not seem to be familiar. But it is one most professional women know very well.

Jim, you seem unduly emotional on this subject. Imagine that you just had a testiculectomy[admittedly made up terminology] and your boss thought it better to exploit that personal thing about yourself for an article instead of covering something that you were pasionate about and willing to do your best work for.
Also, your immediate default that the editor [male] probably had sound judgment and that the reporter [female] was possibly misunderstanding or melodramatizing the situation speaks volumes for your view of the sexes.