The slant is usually subtle — the stories journalists choose to report and the ones they choose to ignore, the loaded adjectives they use in their writing, the leading headlines they write, the way information is organized in a story, etc. I stumbled upon an excellent dissertation years ago that demonstrated such biases by analyzing coverage of gun rights vs. gun control in major publications and wrote an essay on that study.

My conclusion back then: “Media bias is both real and subtle, and it often goes undetected by both readers and those of us who engage in it. So let this be a warning to the masses. You should be as skeptical, if not cynical, of us journalists as we are of you when you accuse us, rightly or wrongly, of taking sides.”

My perspective changed drastically this year, both because I had a job at the Media Research Center where I was more exposed to the bias that exists (have you ever noticed that Democrats are rarely identified in news reports about their scandals but Republicans always are, and high in the story) and because I saw so many of my journalistic colleagues worshiping at the altar of Barack Obama. One former colleague went to work for his campaign — not long after conducting a friendly interview with him.

If you’re an Obama fan, I don’t say that to offend. He’s my president now, too, and I hope he succeeds. I offer that not so much as a political statement but as an analysis of the current pitiful state of my profession. Voters saw the same bias I did, according to polls; they just didn’t care about it because they liked Obama.

What I wish people would realize is that they like Obama in part because of the largely positive coverage he received compared with his rivals in both the Democratic primary and the general election. Media coverage shapes the way people think, whether they realize it or not.

There are more outlets now and that certainly brings some balance to the situation. The Internet has helped tremendously, too, because anyone can be a reporter if he/she wants to be. But the problem is that most people still tend to get their news from the major outlets, where bias can be a serious problem. Or they only watch one channel or read one paper, so they aren’t getting the balanced news diet they need.