• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • About DNS
  • Subscribe to DNS
  • Advertise with DNS
  • Support DNS
  • Contact DNS

Disability News Service

the country's only news agency specialising in disability issues

  • Home
  • Independent Living
    • Arts, Culture and Sport
    • Crime
    • Education
    • Employment
    • Housing
    • Transport
  • Activism & Campaigning
  • Benefits & Poverty
  • Politics
  • Human Rights
You are here: Home / News Archive / Responsible Reform: Frustration after media snubs ground-breaking report

Responsible Reform: Frustration after media snubs ground-breaking report

By guest on 2nd January 2012 Category: News Archive

Listen

Disabled activists who spent months preparing a hard-hitting report that reveals how the government misled parliament over its disability living allowance (DLA) reforms say they are mystified and frustrated by the media’s failure to cover the story.

Despite huge interest in the Responsible Reform report across social media – with the report “trending” on Twitter at number one and two for much of the launch day – there was almost no mainstream coverage on television or in national newspapers.

Sue Marsh, one of the disabled bloggers and activists who led the research, said the reaction to the campaigning report on Twitter “went beyond our wildest dreams” and there was initial media interest in a report that had been researched, written and funded by disabled people themselves.

The report itself was backed by a string of disability charities and other organisations, and leading Twitter-using celebrities including Stephen Fry, comedian Mark Thomas, presenters Sue Perkins and Hardeep Singh Kohli, and Alastair Campbell, the former Labour Downing Street communications director.

But late on the day before the report was due to be published, the mainstream media interest began to evaporate, despite the campaign’s “very clear objectives” and “clear costed solutions”.

Marsh said: “It just seems to me that there is a red line, and journalists have decided that these welfare changes have to go through and they are not going to rock the boat. They all seem to think that the government has to be allowed to do this.”

The disabled peer Baroness [Tanni] Grey-Thompson was one of those who commented on Twitter, questioning why the report wasn’t being covered on television news bulletins.

Sir Bert Massie, former chair of the Disability Rights Commission, said he was “disappointed but not surprised” at the lack of media coverage.

He said the kind of “counter-blast” delivered by Responsible Reform was so important because the government was undermining public confidence in the benefits system, for example by encouraging newspapers like the Daily Mail to run stories about “benefit scroungers”.

He said the government’s “gung-ho dogma” on welfare reform would “cause a lot of heartbreak and leave us with a worse system”.

Marsh said the failure of the mainstream media to cover the report – also known as the “Spartacus Report” – only reinforced the importance of social media to disabled campaigners and left the rest of the media looking “out of touch and behind the curve”.

She said: “We have been ignored by the media and politicians. We should be showing we have power and a voice of our own.”

12 January 2012

Share this post:

Share on X (Twitter)Share on FacebookShare on WhatsAppShare on RedditShare on LinkedIn
A photograph shows an audience raising their hands in a BSL sign. The words say: 'BSL Conference 2025. The future starts with us. Leeds 17-18 July. Be part of shaping the future of Deaf cultures and identities. Get 10% off with BDA10'

Related

‘Muddled’ blue badge reforms ‘are to blame for renewal delays’
6th February 2015
UN debate will be reminder of true inclusive education
6th February 2015
IDS breaks pledge on PIP waiting-times, as tens of thousands still queue for months
30th January 2015

Primary Sidebar

On the left of the image are multiple heads of different colours - white, aqua, red, light brown, and dark green - all grouped together, then the words ‘Campaign for Disability Justice. Sign up to support. #OpportunitySecurityRespect’
A photograph shows an audience raising their hands in a BSL sign. The words say: 'BSL Conference 2025. The future starts with us. Leeds 17-18 July. Be part of shaping the future of Deaf cultures and identities. Get 10% off with BDA10'

Access

Latest Stories

‘Disastrous’ cuts bill that leaves legacy of distrust and distress ‘must be dropped’

Four disabled Labour MPs stand up to government over cuts to disability benefits

Silence from MP sister of Rachel Reeves over suicide linked to PIP flaws, just as government was seeking cuts

Disabled people receiving care were ‘ignored by design’ during the pandemic, Covid inquiry hears

Disabled activists warn Labour MPs who vote for cuts: ‘The gloves will be off’

GB News says it has nothing to apologise for, after guest suggests starving disabled benefit claimants

SEND inspections find services in just one in four areas usually lead to ‘positive’ outcomes for disabled children

Disabled MP who quit government over benefit cuts tells DNS: ‘The consequences will be devastating’

Disabled peers plan to ‘amend, amend, amend, amend, amend’ after assisted dying bill reaches Lords

Minister finally admits that working-age benefits spending is stable, despite months of ‘spiralling’ claims

Advice and Information

Readspeaker
A photograph shows an audience raising their hands in a BSL sign. The words say: 'BSL Conference 2025. The future starts with us. Leeds 17-18 July. Be part of shaping the future of Deaf cultures and identities. Get 10% off with BDA10'

Footer

The International Standard Serial Number for Disability News Service is: ISSN 2398-8924

  • Accessibility Statement
  • Privacy Policy
  • Site map
  • Bluesky
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Threads
  • Twitter

Copyright © 2025 Disability News Service

Site development by A Bright Clear Web