The inaccuracy and bias of the mainstream media in reporting on opposition parties is not only well known by now, but truly pathetic as well.

On Feb 15, the New Straits Times reported that only about 500 people attended the gathering of the Free Anwar Movement at Cherok To'Kun the night before, contrary to the movement's advertised expectation of 100,000.

Anyone who was there at the ceramah which started at around 9:30pm would quickly laugh off the NST number as utter rubbish - an insult to the several thousands gathered there and who remained until the ceramah ended at slightly past midnight.

The following day, Feb 16, the NST changed its tune, this time saying the estimated crowd size, according to the police, was 2,300.

What happened to the first claim of 500? Who came up with it and how? No explanations, let alone apologies, were offered by the paper to clear up the discrepancy, if not inability to do simple counting.

More than that, the whole point of the second NST report was to scoff at Keadilan Youth chief Mohd Ezam Mohd Nor's idea of challenging Deputy Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak for the Pekan parliamentary seat given that the gathering failed to attract even one-third of the 100,000 expected crowd.

The paper conveniently forgot that Najib nearly lost the seat in the last elections. Granted, it is not easy to come up with an accurate count of the people who attended the gathering last Saturday night at Cherok To'Kun because it was in an open venue and people could come to it from different directions. But that does not in any way excuse the blatantly wrong estimate of 500.

As to the police estimate of 2,300, while it is far more credible, it still errs on the conservative side. (My estimation, from only the front part of the gathering where most of the crowd was sitting on the field, is about 5,000.)

On the other hand, it was somewhat puzzling that the Free Anwar Movement should expect a 100,000 turn-out because I doubt the venue could hold that size of a crowd, even including those who stood in lorongs (alleys) and on the main road. Could this have encouraged NST to shamelessly disregard accurate reporting?

The utter lack of professionalism and credibility of NST and their shameless bias is, of course, old news. Most members of the public have been made aware of the mainstream media's lack of credibility especially since the days of their grossly biased reporting on the sacking and incarceration of Anwar Ibrahim as well as the peaceful demonstrations that followed.

A major impact of the lack of credibility was a decline in the readership of the newspapers. This purportedly has gotten some in the mainstream media to be concerned and interested in doing something about it.

But, as long as you still have the mainstream media performing the kind of shenanigan as the one by NST in covering what was really a simple story, they are only deluding themselves.

This does not bode well for those who would like to see the mainstream media striving to cover the upcoming elections fairly and independently.