Daily Mail Has No News, Tries Ideological Warfare Instead

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1305565/More-1BILLION-lost-disability-benefit-fraud-error.html

There are several problems, from my perspective, with this most recent of 'benefit fraud is killing our once-great country' type story.

1: They've clearly got the figures wrong. Could newspapers please consider getting out a calculator when talking about disability benefits? We'd really appreciate it.

2: This is not news. In any way. These figures were published months ago, and the 'bounty hunter' information isn't new either. Newspapers keep trotting these figures out for a reason. We know what that reason is. Start being honest about it, Daily Mail and co. You're part of a government attack on benefits claimants, and DLA is the biggest current target of that attack.

3: The Mail appears to be reaching new lows in selective quotation and misrepresentation. I'm fairly sure that wasn't the whole of the quotation from Liz Sayce of RADAR. Now we're dragging disability organisations into this mess. I hope RADAR complains if its views have been misrepresented. Still, I'm sure that was exactly what the Taxpayers' Alliance wanted to say.

I'm relieved to see a commenter pointing out how much underpayment exceeds overpayment in disability benefits (go to 'best rated' comments - suprisingly for the Mail, this was the highest rated comment at time of blogging). We're unlikely to see that made clear in a tabloid newspaper right now, though. Facts are irrelevant in this ideological war.