Exhibit A: From the magazine. A 2 page spread on people who have just lost their jobs. The blurb:

“As we’re all aware, it’s a dark time for the jobs market. With some 290,000 people currently on the live register, that number is expected to hit 300,000 by February. We asked six people in a Dublin dole queue to tell us about their recent experiences.”

WE GET IT… STOP REVELLING IN IT. It’s bad enough experiencing it day to day without having to read the same thing from others too. Enough of this already.

RTE are no better with their planned series “Are you feeling the financial pinch”. It’s to be fronted by George Lee and sounds like just what the country needs right now.

Exhibit B:

No photo required for this one. It’s also from the magazine and by Una Mullally. She asks “Why do the Oscars perpetuate gender divisions?”. This in particular:

“For me, the coverage of going to the Oscars is about their art, their acting quality. For women, all of this is pushed aside in place of that all important question: “Who are you wearing?”. DUH, women like fashion – get over it. Men don’t care about fashion and frilly things. Men and women are just different – that’s the bottom line. No amount of whining about how women are seen as ‘pretty little things’ (my words) is going to change that.

But it’s ok for the Tribune to turn men into sex objects as evidenced by a feature they had in the same magazine last year about “sexy GAA stars”. The front of the magazine showed the six pack of some guy on the front cover, all lubed up. Inside they had photos of men as sex objects. These were serious sportsmen reduced to eye candy for sex starved female readers on a Sunday morning.  If they carried a feature on female GAA stars Joe Duffy would have been inundated next day.

Here’s another article in a similar vein (sexy male sportsmen) by Una herself. No whiff of concern about the objectifying the male form is there?

AND FINALLY, Exhibit C:

This headline makes prime position on page 3 along with a publicity photo of the 21 year old woman in question receiving her €86,000 cheque. This is news? It’s very spiteful is what it is. Inappropriate use of Lottery publicity photographs too I would think. Shame on the Tribune.