With Walter Cronkite's passing I am reminded of a time when I thought we got the news reported as it was. Is that still possible?

I think there is some effort to not be biased by most media outlets. Bias exists, though.

I actually think because of cable and the Web media outlets have less power today, because it is not concetrated as it used to be in a handful of institutions.

The same applies to advertisers. They cannot threaten to pull their sponsorship anymore without a public backlash.

Government? In most cases, no.

Clearly, NBC and ABC are Pro-Obama even before he was elected. Fox is Republican, just as clearly.

But it’s not the CLEAR ones we have to worry about. It’s the ones that are more subtle.

It’s possible, though everyone has filters, but it doesn’t seem to be happening from the megacorporate news agencies… unless your filters match theirs. It’s just harder to find them because the big ones are all bought out.

If there is such a journalist today, people are so jaded towards the news that it would make it hard for him/her to stand out as such.

I get my news mostly from NPR, and as much as I want to say they are non-biased I do think they have a liberal bent. However, I do think they try harder than others to be objective. As @SirBailey mentioned, there are news outlets that very clearly slant one way or the other with the stand-out example being Fox News and their unapologetically conservative coverage. When I can, I listen to the BBC World News, to me they have the best non-biased news coverage around.

I guess the short answer to your question is no. I think the era of getting news reported as it is, of getting “strictly the facts” with no bias is long gone – never to be resurrected.

No. The news media is now focused on sensationalism not the truth.

“The media is no longer in the business of reporting the news, they’re in the business of creating the news.” – former governor of Minnesota, Jesse Ventura, talking to Jay Leno on the Tonight Show many years ago

If I’m looking for what I hope is realiable news, I’ll try NPR and the BBC.

@Bluefreedom – You have summed up my thoughts completely. Even including the quote from Ventura.

I think TCH also had a point, that the jaded public would have a hard time with them if they were.

We get a more accurate picture by switching from one news report to another throughout the day, and checking out the news feeds on the computer. I suscribe to a news sharing site called Newsvine, which is free.

Cronkite was the voice of America in a simpler time. The added complexity, unnecessary adulation of the mediocre, and money machinery make voices of reason seem boring, thus silenced. Cronkite’s voice will resonate as the best there ever was, and he will be revered in a world seeking better than what pablum we are receiving. There is the odd exception, but we are the guilty ones as we devour the crap that passes for important while the world shakes in its foundations due to man’s inhumanity to man.

Morning Joe on MSNBC is very good. They have guests on for 15 minutes, sometimes longer, lots of discussion, not spin, opinions from all sides. The host is Joe Scarborough, former republican congressman, but he is a conservative, not part of this right wing hateful craziness, and co-host Mika Brzezeinski (Zbigniew Brzezinski’s daughter) who is a dem. The dems and the rep are willing to agree on this show and THINK.

It’s not the same as traditional journalism like Cronkite, but I think it is the best we have right now, especially for political discussion and information.

@JLeslie I completely agree. It is one of the few shows that I watch for my news. Joe Scarborough was one of the few that didn’t idolize Obama during the election, he just gave us the facts. This is when he gained my trust.

@jonsblond I even love Pat Buchanan on that show, which seems insane. But, even he just gives his point of view, which I think helps people like me understand, or at least try to understand where the religious right is coming from, and Buchanan is willing to say when he agrees with the dems also. It’s so good.