Top French paper drops polls after forecast failures
A leading French newspaper said Tuesday it had decided to stop publishing political polls, which have been widely criticized for failing to predict the biggest shocks of the last year.
Le Parisien daily said it would stop commissioning polling group Ipsos and would base its stories in the run-up to this year's presidential election on reporting by its own journalists. "We have decided, and it was the subject of a lot of debate, to return to the heart of our profession which is working on the ground," the paper's editorial director Stephane Albouy told France Inter radio.
He did not however rule out referring in stories to polls carried out by other media.
Most media routinely rely on polls -- surveys of hundreds, sometimes thousands of voters by phone or online -- to flag up political trends and the top candidates.
But their credibility has suffered after a year in which pollsters failed to forecast Britain's exit from the European Union, Donald Trump's triumph in the United States or the victory of Francois Fillon in a French rightwing primary.
Albouy said newspapers needed to listen to critics who see journalists as being "cut off from reality" while denying that Le Parisien had made errors in being over-reliant on polls in the past.
"I'm not attacking polls... the difficulty is how we the media use them," he said, adding that his newspaper's new approach "will make us closer to our readers."
Polling groups say turbulence in Western democracies, which have been buffeted by mass migration and economic woes, has made their job more difficult. Late swings in sentiment can also wrong-foot analysts.
French voters will cast ballots in April and in May in a two-round presidential election, followed by parliamentary elections in June.
Polls currently tip the rightwing Republicans candidate Fillon to become president, but he faces fierce competition from the far-right National Front as well as a range of independents and an as-yet-unknown Socialist party challenger.
French left-wing candidates, Manuel Valls and Vincent Peillon laid out their platforms yesterday, pleading for unity and tolerance in the face of far-right candidate Marine Le Pen's anti-immigration, anti-EU campaign.
Manuel Valls, prime minister under unpopular President Francois Hollande until December, unveiled his program in his bid to clinch the nomination for the Socialist party which will hold its own primary later this month. The center-left Valls faces competition from more leftwing opponents, including made-in-France champion, former industry minister Arnaud Montebourg. Valls and Peillon are among seven candidates in the leftist primary Jan. 22 and 29, seeking a nomination that looks like a poisoned chalice. Both men sought to distance themselves from the Socialists' troubles — and to revive support for the EU. That may prove a hard sell in the wake of Britain's vote to leave the EU and amid frustration across the continent with a union seen as elitist and bogged down in bureaucracy.
Le Parisien daily said it would stop commissioning polling group Ipsos and would base its stories in the run-up to this year's presidential election on reporting by its own journalists. "We have decided, and it was the subject of a lot of debate, to return to the heart of our profession which is working on the ground," the paper's editorial director Stephane Albouy told France Inter radio.
He did not however rule out referring in stories to polls carried out by other media.
Most media routinely rely on polls -- surveys of hundreds, sometimes thousands of voters by phone or online -- to flag up political trends and the top candidates.
But their credibility has suffered after a year in which pollsters failed to forecast Britain's exit from the European Union, Donald Trump's triumph in the United States or the victory of Francois Fillon in a French rightwing primary.
Albouy said newspapers needed to listen to critics who see journalists as being "cut off from reality" while denying that Le Parisien had made errors in being over-reliant on polls in the past.
"I'm not attacking polls... the difficulty is how we the media use them," he said, adding that his newspaper's new approach "will make us closer to our readers."
Polling groups say turbulence in Western democracies, which have been buffeted by mass migration and economic woes, has made their job more difficult. Late swings in sentiment can also wrong-foot analysts.
French voters will cast ballots in April and in May in a two-round presidential election, followed by parliamentary elections in June.
Polls currently tip the rightwing Republicans candidate Fillon to become president, but he faces fierce competition from the far-right National Front as well as a range of independents and an as-yet-unknown Socialist party challenger.
French left-wing candidates, Manuel Valls and Vincent Peillon laid out their platforms yesterday, pleading for unity and tolerance in the face of far-right candidate Marine Le Pen's anti-immigration, anti-EU campaign.
Manuel Valls, prime minister under unpopular President Francois Hollande until December, unveiled his program in his bid to clinch the nomination for the Socialist party which will hold its own primary later this month. The center-left Valls faces competition from more leftwing opponents, including made-in-France champion, former industry minister Arnaud Montebourg. Valls and Peillon are among seven candidates in the leftist primary Jan. 22 and 29, seeking a nomination that looks like a poisoned chalice. Both men sought to distance themselves from the Socialists' troubles — and to revive support for the EU. That may prove a hard sell in the wake of Britain's vote to leave the EU and amid frustration across the continent with a union seen as elitist and bogged down in bureaucracy.
Last Update: January 04, 2017 01:00