<b>TN Ninan</b>: Choosing one's facts

Does the bulk of the media have a political bias? Perhaps it doesn't matter so long as one can speak truth to power. But as in the case of the now-famous death of a judge, was it truth at all?

Thirty-eight years ago, in January 1980, Indian psephology was born when India Today commissioned Prannoy Roy and Marg, a market research firm, to do an opinion poll in the run-up to the Lok Sabha elections. The Roy-Marg forecast was that Indira Gandhi (still hated by many because of her Emergency record) would come right back with a two-thirds majority in the House. This was something that no reporter on the election beat was saying. The pundits in the media derided the poll, till the results vindicated it. History was repeated five years later when the next nationwide opinion poll forecast