One thing that bothered me about the recent presidential election was the talk of "media bias". Some commentators believed that the media was biased towards Obama and painted him in a better light than McCain. One measure was the amount of positive versus negative mentions a candidate would receive on a given network.
My thinking on this issue is: why would someone assume that the news channels aren't biased? The news channels are private companies that are seeking to make a profit. ABC, for example, is owned by Disney and is a publicly traded stock. All the news companies are looking to maximize profit via higher ratings and the associated higher advertising revenue. If Obama stories gathered more viewers than McCain stories, then it's no surprise which candidate they would feature.
I just start with the assumption that the information I'm receiving from the news channels is biased - one way or another. If I really want to look at things objectively, I would go online and do some research. I don't count on profit-seeking companies to provide an objective analysis for me.
