The Huffington Post: Independent from What?

"Objectivity" can often be a difficult concept to put into practice in the news media, particularly with regards to negative reports about the candidates. While good and bad news does not come equally for all candidates, and pretending that it does is a violation of the spirit of objectivity, bad news for unfavored candidates should not be overemphasized. The Huffington Post is guilty emphasizing McCain and Palin's mistakes and flaws,

-This story shows Palin unable to name any Supreme Court cases except Roe v. Wade. While this is a troubling development, albeit so extreme as to be nearly unbelievable, the Huffington Post reported this story with clear bias.
*The headline, "Latest Palin Gaffe" emphasizes that this is one of many mistakes Palin has made.
*The Palin aide, who was not named, was only given a brief opportunity to comment and said nothing substantial.
-This article about McCain complaining of "gotcha journalism" against Palin in reports over her announcing plans to attack Pakistan shows several incidents of taking issue with McCain's comments in an opinionated way without providing sufficient analysis.
*The article characterizes McCain's defense as "flimsy" and mentions Palin talking about attacking Pakistan without mentioning the exact quote or date.
*The article criticizes McCain for a "double standard" in similarly attacking Obama when it was not directly related to the issue at hand, which most likely served as a way for the author to criticize the McCain campaign.
*The article then goes on to complain about another incident of attacking Biden over supposedly suggesting Obama's opposition to clean coal plants.
-This article is critical of McCain from the very headline: "McCain: Now Is Not the Time to Blame, But I blame Obama," which is especially troubling because the headline serves to summarize the story- and essentially serves as the reporter's conclusion. The writer did not attempt to contact either McCain nor Eakin for an explanation of the remarks, showing that he put very little effort into delving deeper into the story beyond the apparent contradiction.

Despite being "independent" media, and supposedly disassociated from the shallow reporting, self-censorship for corporate parents, the Huffington Post still allows biases to influence the tone of its reporting. While no one can be completely "objective", all journalists must do what they can to ensure that they do not allow their biases to interfere with their reporting. If the Huffington Post's biases show this plainly, it raises doubt about their writers' personal restraint, their managers' enforcing ethics and the organization's credibility as a news source.