Why the French media should wean themselves off polls
The frenzy of opinion-seeking is doing journalism and politics a disservice.
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John Lichfield is a former foreign editor of the Independent and was the newspaper’s Paris correspondent for 20 years. CALVADOS, France — Opinion polls are influential in all democracies, criticized constantly but watched obsessively. In France, however, the polls are more than just influential; they have become part of the country’s electoral machinery. All the more reason, one would think, for French polls to be reliable. Increasingly, they are not. The relentless conveyor belt of polls, or s ondages, released by the 14 competing organizations in France is confusing at the best o...