Does Media Bias Exist?

If it's a presidential election year, the words "Media bias" are going to bandied about right and left (or conservative and liberal if you'd like). The right will talk about a liberal media bias (specifically the major broadcast networks, MSNBC, the NY Times & The Washington Post) and the left will say there's no such thing while at the same time denigrating Fox News Network for exactly the same thing. The question is, is there such a thing as media bias?
Before addressing this, let me preface by letting you know I am a moderate Republican. I do not consider myself a "conservative" or a "liberal". I prefer our country be ruled from the center, whether Democrats or Republicans are in power. I also make a living as a member of the media. Now that I've gotten that out of the way, some of you will take what I have to say as gospel while others will be convinced I have a huge ax to grind.
The simple answer is yes, Virginia, there is such a thing as media bias. The problem is, it is a simplistic answer. The real answer is much more complicated. There is intentional and unintentional media bias. There is also the fact that finding scandal, no matter which party commits it, drives ratings and/or circulation, so the media are constantly looking for candidates, officeholders and celebrities to make a mistake. As a Republican, I might tend to see bias when it goes against my party, while paying little attention when the bias is against the opposition.
Here's an example of media bias (from my own biased point of view). In her first interview since being named as John McCain's VP choice, ABC's Charles Gibson asked Sarah Palin if she hesitated for a moment before accepting the position of running mate. She said no. Gibson persisted. Was there ever a moment of doubt that you could do the job? Palin answered no. Gibson persisted. Doesn't that take a lot of hubris (arrogance)? The moment that question came out, it became a case of media bias. Gibson already had made up his mind that someone in Palin's position must have had at least a moment of self-doubt when asked to serve as a VP candidate. Why is that? If I'm offered a promotion at work, am I supposed to express to anyone that I have a doubt as to whether I can do the job? And is it arrogant of me not to? I don't think so.
I don't know where Gibson's bias in this one individual example comes from and I will concede it did NOT have to do with the Republican Party or conservatives. My personal opinion is that Gibson feels someone who hasn't been on the national stage before should have self-doubt about taking a position that would put them on that stage.
At the same time, maybe Gibson has, as I'm sure many Americans have, a bias against the state of Alaska as it pertains to the rest of the country. While this is a moot point, I would be willing to bet that had Palin come into the interview with the exact same qualifications but was instead from the state of Rhode Island (or Delaware, home to VP candidate Joe Biden), the question of hubris or even the initial questions about hesitancy and self-doubt, would not have come up. Why? Because the national media is more familiar with the state of Rhode Island, due to its proximity to Washington DC and New York, where most of said media members work and thus, the media would already know who this person is.
Unintentional bias occurs when someone in the media doesn't understand the context from which their subject speaks. Again, I point to Gibson's Palin interview. There was much made of his question to her about what she meant when speaking in her church about our servicemen in Iraq and if she was saying we were fighting a war from God. He then ran a clip of Palin speaking in her church that most certainly gave me the impression she did indeed believe that. Palin said that's not what she meant and explained her context. I wasn't buying it.
About two hours later, a network ran the same clip of Palin in church, but then added what she had said next in the church. It totally put Palin's explanation to Gibson in agreement. This time, the editing of the church clip turns into a case of media bias. In this case, I'd like to think this was unintentional bias- that someone (either an editor or Gibson himself) with a more limited understanding of religion didn't even realize how much the context of the church remarks changed when cutting the last section off. Intentional or not, now you have two cases of bias in the same interview and the perception becomes that once again the media is biased against conservatives and even Christians.
While I have not spent as much time looking at the opposition party, I'm sure there are examples that Obama supporters can bring up about the same thing. Hillary Clinton, I'm sure, feels there was a lot of media bias towards Obama in the primaries. The fact is, it does exist, sometimes on purpose, sometimes not. And until some members of the mainstream media get off their own high horses and really try to examine the subject, it will continue to exist.