Is our news biased?

News -  A friend of another faith told to me that she quit watching the election reporting. Her reason-- it was not objective reporting. Why this struck me so hard was that I also had turned off the reporting because I was stunned to witness the obviously biased reporting. I have been receiving my information from the internet for many years and therefore had not seen TV reporting for several years.

My friend and I both have many decades of being exposed to news reporting. (I'm not saying that we are older, though it is true.) Yes, there has always been the desire to expose the hidden, a crusading zeal, about reporters. I have always admired this quality. I also applauded their attempt to objectively present data. I expected information to be fairly presented to me, leaving me to form my own opinions. I listened to editorials when I wanted to hear, hopefully, informed opinions. 

A lot has changed. Of course, in the 60's and 70's a lot of information was withheld from the general public. Now we are barraged by information.
Today there are still those dedicated journalists who masterfully bring the truth to light, but they are becoming more rare. Now, many reporters seem to be more concerned about becoming popular as they focus narrowly on some supposed misdeed, than on presenting the whole truth. 

Another concern I have is that there is a general decline in reading and in newspaper reading specifically. Many people in our overly busy world are giving up researching and analyzing issues. In their rush, they merely sip on the biased predigested snippets of popular information they find on the internet or on the news. The result is that many people today lack the necessary background and analytical ability to discern the real issues, to perceive the principles which are involved, or to comprehend the whole picture. 

What is the problem with this? People that don't question the objectivity of the news they receive, and accept some post on Facebook with a scary headline and a link to an biased article which gives a few quotes out of context as the whole truth, are in danger of being led by unscrupulous manipulators. 

If we don't want to return to the mass hysteria of the late 1600's witch hunts in Salem, Massachusetts, the 1940's Jewish hunts in Germany, or the 1950's McCarthy communist hunts in the U.S, then we need to stop allowing others, including journalists, to lead us. We need to step back, check the accuracy of our information, and take the time to understand the real issues and principles before we react.  We need to ask serious questions and get full answers before we declare someone or something good or bad. It is time that we make our own decisions while we still have a society to defend.