A female MP from Victoria has launched an attack on Nine after an altered image of her appeared in a story on its Melbourne news bulletin broadcast.
Animal Justice Party representative, Georgie Purcell posted on X (formerly Twitter) compared the image that appeared in the broadcast to the original photograph. The graphic added a cropped section to Purcell’s dress, exposing her stomach. Purcell also claimed that the news outlet had enlarged her breasts.
“Having my body and outfit photoshopped by a media outlet was not on my bingo card,” she said in her post. “Can’t imagine this happening to a male MP”.
I endured a lot yesterday.
But having my body and outfit photoshopped by a media outlet was not on my bingo card.
Note the enlarged boobs and outfit to be made more revealing.
Can’t imagine this happening to a male MP.
What gives? pic.twitter.com/NhnkDRMidc
— Georgie Purcell (@georgievpurcell) January 29, 2024
Director of 9News Melbourne, Hugh Nailon sincerely apologised to Purcell for what he called a “graphic error”, putting the mistake down to AI gone rogue.
“Our graphics department sourced an online image of Georgie to use in our story on duck hunting,” he said in a statement. “As is common practice, the image was resized to fit our specs. During that process, the automation by Photoshop created an image that was not consistent with the original”.
Purcell has been a member of the Victorian Legislative Council since the 2022 state election. She has appeared in the news recently regarding her stance on the controversial decision to allow the continuation of Duck Hunting in Victoria. Purcell featured in Nine’s report on the story, telling the broadcaster that the government had “blood on their hands” after their decision.
