Joe Brolly hits back in Sky sexism row

Did you really expect him to back down in the midst of a debate?

Brolly, who has arguably been the most prominent critic of the Sky deal since it was announced earlier this year, came in for plenty of criticism last night after a tweet that included a not so subtle dig at the Sky GAA line-up that was unveiled earlier this week and specifically at presenter Rachel Wyse. It wasn't the wisest move on Brolly's behalf, but, to his credit, he engaged with a number of people who responded to his tweet last night and this morning, he followed it up with an explanation, implying that it was Sky who were sexist because of their policy of hiring attractive female presenters for an overwhelmingly male audience for their sports coverage.

SKY's entrenched beautiful anchor formula is shamelessly sexist, designed for their overwhelmingly male audience. That is the point. — Joe Brolly (@JoeBrolly1993) May 21, 2014

 

Or it could be a twenty year long coincidence — Joe Brolly (@JoeBrolly1993) May 21, 2014

Brolly may have succeeded only in stoking the fire even further with his tweets this morning – and some of the responses would seem to suggest that it is exactly what he has done - and while it is no doubt a serious debate and will probably rumble on for a while yet, we have to admit that, like Brolly, we particularly enjoyed the response of one of his followers a little earlier today…

@JoeBrolly1993 Dont be a hypocrite. RTE did the same thing only they targeted the female audience when they teamed you and Spillane up. — Connor McErlane (@connormcerlane) May 21, 2014

UPDATE: Joe Brolly has apologised directly to Rachel Wyse on Twitter for comments he made last night.

@RACHEL_WYSE Rachel, I apologise for the remark about a "Baywatch babe" . It was not meant to be personal but it was crass & wrong of me. — Joe Brolly (@JoeBrolly1993) May 21, 2014

@RACHEL_WYSE It was no reflection on your abilities as a presenter or at least I didn't mean it to be. I apologise. It will not be repeated — Joe Brolly (@JoeBrolly1993) May 21, 2014