“I can’t imagine something like this happening to a male MP. What do you give?” Mr Purcell added, using parliamentary shorthand.
The original image of Purcell in a white dress was edited to show her in a crop top and skirt, exposing her stomach and enlarged breasts. The Nine Network used the doctored image as part of a graphic in its evening news bulletin.
“Hot tip 9, I got a tattoo all over my stomach,” she wrote, referring to the devoid of ink on her midriff in the doctored image.
9 News Melbourne director Hugh Nailon said in a statement that the image was the result of an error caused by “Photoshop automation” when the network’s graphics department resized an image obtained online. .
“This did not meet our high editorial standards and for that we unreservedly apologize to Ms Purcell,” he said.
A spokesperson for Adobe, which publishes Photoshop, said in an email that the edits “required human intervention and approval.”
A Nine spokesperson said Photoshop’s Generative Expand AI tool was used on Parcel’s cropped image, with the aim of expanding the dimensions of the photo to fit the graphics used in the news bulletin. Adobe says the tool can fill empty spaces with “newly generated, high-quality content that blends naturally with existing images.” A spokesperson said Nine was considering using the technology.
AI image These tools have been widely criticized for reinforcing negative stereotypes when producing images based on neutral prompts and commands, such as hypersexualization of women.
In a later statement, Purcell said the fiasco was an example of “the constant sexualization and objectification that accompanies the leaking, distortion, and AI generation of images.”
“Let me be clear: this is not something that would happen to my male colleagues,” she wrote in a Facebook post.
Purcell, a lawyer who is one of the youngest members of Congress, has spoken candidly about her past jobs as a stripper and topless waitress, as well as the sexism and misogyny she faced before and after entering politics. .
