![]() ![]() ![]() The Liddle row relates specifically to particular failures in reporting of ME, but more than that – it speaks to the ease with which the British media too often publish content that doubt, scapegoat, and misrepresent minorities like disabled people, while giving no concern to the consequences.Ī survey into the press’s portrayal of disability in 2012 found that three-quarters of disabled people believed the volume of negativity was “significantly increasing”, with nine out of 10 saying there was a link between negative press portrayal of disabled people and rising hostility and hate crime. The standards around commentary about disability in the media are so low that even someone with Liddle’s form can be given a platform to make such claims vilification can easily be dressed up as “debate”, prejudice as “concern”. In his latest piece, Liddle at least acknowledges that ME is a serious illness – saying “hundreds of thousands of lives are wrecked by these ailments” – and accepts that, whether the condition has a mental or physical cause, it is equally debilitating.īut by propagating the idea people with ME don’t actually want to recover, because they criticise some researchers’ claims, it is little more than a disability dog-whistle: a nasty rehash of vitriol long poured over people with “invisible” or misunderstood chronic illnesses and disabilities. “Maybe just a bit of a bad back or one of those newly invented illnesses which make you a bit peaky for decades – fibromyalgia, or ME.” In 2012, he wrote a piece for the Sun declaring his New Year’s resolution was “to become disabled” in order to scam disability benefits. Liddle should know – he’s done it himself. Crucially, many people with ME believe this research, and the media’s ongoing coverage of it has added fuel to the belief that their illness is not real – that a bit of positive thinking will somehow stop patients being bed-bound – which can in turn be used against them by others, such as questioning their need for rest or to receive state support. The trial has since been criticised as “not robust” by scientists, while some patients reported that their conditions actually deteriorated after taking on the exercise. The background to this is complex but in brief, Sharpe led research in 2015 that controversially said many patients with ME are being held back by their own failure to “push themselves to recover” through therapy and graded exercise. Hiring people like Liddle does nothing but add toxicity to the already rotting discourse, contributing to an ever-more poisonous climate ![]()
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