Let's start off by saying that your editor is a believer in Martha Stewart and her teachings. She's one of the few living philosophers able to infiltrate the common world from a comfortable distance. And her masterpiece, Entertaining, stands as a prideful Mrs. Dalloway-like acceptance of female hysteria in a modern Western world (of particular importance are her notes on what to do with nervous energy before a party), as well as a strong argument proving the existence of God via elaborate crudité.

That being said, we are saddened and surprised to hear that, during an interview with Bloomberg News this week, Stewart attacked the work of lifestyle bloggers.

"Who are these bloggers? They aren’t trained editors at Vogue magazine," Martha chides, going on to say, "Bloggers are writing recipes that aren’t tested, aren’t necessarily very good or are copies of things that really good editors have created and done. Bloggers create a kind of …umm…popularity but they are not the experts. We have to understand that."

We can only assume that, since she doesn't name names, she's referring to such sites as Smitten Kitchen and the like. (In the same interview, though, she does verbally roll her eyes at Gwyneth Paltrow's GOOP.)

Kimberly Grabinski, from the impossibly named What's That Smell?, rebuts the noted thinker in a blog post, saying: "We are all experts in lifestyle topics in our own way. This is not rocket science or brain surgery. This is making a cupcake, creating a new quilt design, or knowing just which flowers to mix together. We can all be experts in the topic of ‘lifestyle’."

Stewart, we should point out, isn't alone. Well-intentioned chefs and slippery public relations types often marginalize bloggers and online media in favor of out-of-date and elitist print rags and newspapers. Food and fashion, once championed as harbingers, are now woefully behind yet pridefully ignorant when it comes to media and thus the world around them.

We can only hope that Stewart, who gave the keynote at the 2012 BlogHer event, comes to her senses and gets her head out of the past. She later apologized (sort of) to "great friends and trusted allies."


[Babble]
[Bloomberg]