© 2019, © 2019 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. Using qualitative content analysis, informed by a Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) approach, this article examines the production, content and reception of print and online media discourses concerning the 2017 `Welfare Cheats, Cheat Us All¿ campaign in the Republic of Ireland. Our article is situated in the context of recent debates concerning the media¿s role in articulating `disgust¿ discourses focused on `welfare fraud¿, poverty and unemployment. Central to these processes is the social construction of those who are deemed to be the `deserving poor¿ or the `undeserving poor¿. Our corpus includes records of in-house debate within the Department of Social Protection; the campaign¿s documentation; print media and on-line media coverage of the campaign. The article¿s findings demonstrate the ways in which welfare `fraud¿ is mis-represented by the state and media. It also evidences ways in which such hegemonic discourses can be challenged in traditional and `new¿ media settings.