On a recent trip to New York, one news editor took issue with the idea that even "good journalism" should get a bias rating. 

I get his point. The idea of journalistic integrity is to report without bias, to report facts and balance the coverage. That is what they teach in journalism school, and many journalists do a fantastic job at this.

In addition to this week's top news stories, there has been a bit of a shake up in the news media world.

Al Jazeera America, a new cable news channel whose parent company is based in Qatar, launched nationwide Tuesday on major cable networks like Comcast, DIRECTV and DISH Network, but not on others such as AT&T U-verse TV.

As you've probably heard, Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon, is buying The Washington Post. 

This news caught our attention at AllSides because Bezos is a known innovator and we are interested in innovating to promote and preserve journalistic integrity in a world where many feel the media is "broken." Improving media, and helping our democracy work better, is a core to our vision at AllSides.

This week we saw stories about Obama's Grand Bargain proposal and Republicans pressing the new FBI director on Benghazi, but the biggest story in politics at the moment is about new 

This week, even in the midst of scandalous Washington dramas, we saw rays of multi-partisan cooperation.

Our latest blind bias survey (thank you everyone who participated - you can take our new bias survey here) measured the bias of several different news sources and changed our official AllSides Bias Rating for a few of them. 

Here are the new ratings: The Wall Street Journal (news page only, not editorial) is now rated Center. ABC News is now Lean Left, and USA Today is now rated Center. 

The Wall Street Journal is particularly interesting.

This week: a fresh contrast in Opinion reflections on the Bush presidency and the Boston bombings and Islam in America.

Reflections on Bush Presidency

Because the media paints our culture's view of what is true, it influences policy on everything from waging war to feeding our kids. That’s why we like to see thoughtful critiques on how the media works, from all sides of the political spectrum. 

You may be interested in a couple of recent in-depth discussions of media influence, one from each side.

Fasten your seat belts for two very different views that agree only on one thing: media bias exists and we must think critically about it.

Missed the State of the Union speech or responses? Here is where you can find it:

With "hot political potato" stories like President Obama's inauguration speech and Hillary Clinton’s testimony at the Benghazi hearings, the contrast in coverage was even more pronounced than usual this week.

Here are our top contrast picks for these two big stories:

Benghazi stories

From the Right (Fox News):