Silly Season: when lesbians come out in headlines

Bradley Bytes – A sort of political column by Dara Bradley

“The NHS to fund sperm bank for lesbians,” screamed the front page of the Daily Mail.

The dramatic headline, and the first paragraph, suggested that Britain was to get its first NHS-funded sperm bank to “make it easier for lesbians and single women” to have children.

Read through the piece and it becomes apparent that the fertility clinic is not just for lesbians or for singletons. In fact, as was pointed out on social media, it would be open to anyone regardless of their sexual preferences or marital status, even those finding it difficult to conceive.

“NHS to fund fertility clinic for married, straight women” isn’t as catchy though, is it?

The lesbian sperm-bank story signalled the arrival of Silly-Season. Or at least confirmed that it was in full swing.

Silly Season is the traditional quiet time in the news industry when the courts are closed and politicians are off.

There isn’t a whole pile of ‘serious’ hard-hitting home news to report, and so the white space on pages is filled with what might be kindly described as ‘fluff’.

The Irish Sun confirmed it was Silly Season with the headline: “Woman left feeling dizzy a year after going on fairground ride”. We kid you not.

Reporting the findings of bizarre obscure surveys is meat and drink during Silly Season.

The Irish Independent, for instance, had this gem: “Working by the window is key to good night’s sleep”.

It does get you wondering who in God’s name decided to do a study on the correlation between distance from windows at work, and insomnia. Are ‘academics’ that stuck for stuff to survey?

Even the broadsheets succumb to Silly Season.

The Irish Times, the so-called paper of record, carried a story about people complaining on social media that the milk in their fridges was going sour before sell-by dates.

What next, a story about people moaning on Twitter that loaves of bread are going stale quicker than normal?

To lend the article weight – as only the IT can – it contacted the Irish Dairy Council to query them about complaints of milk souring within three days of purchase.

“There is no reason for normal pasteurised milk to go off more quickly during the warm weather spell as long as it is stored at the right temperature,” the Dairy Council said.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Sentinel.