[Behind Liberal Lines]

And at the risk of sounding like a liberal, these new synergy conscious news divisions that are part of conglomerates do in fact become corporate shills for their home office.

I agree with 90% of your analysis, but I think your mention of shilling proves, not disproves, the liberal bias.

Look at your example of a Disney boycott. Lately, whenever I read of an actual or contemplated Disney boycott, it is because of either (a) Disney's pro-gay polices; or (b) Disney's dedication to selling near pornography (Britney Spears, Christina Aguilara) to elementary school kids. In other words, the corporations they are shilling for are selling products that are decidedly anti-conservative.

[Media Insurgent]

I wasn't saying that the shilling disproved liberal bias. (When I said I was afraid of sounding like a liberal, I was talking about the liberal tendency to equate anything corporate as inherently evil.)

In Disney example, I definitely agree that many of their products & policies are anti-conservative, and Jennings would probably hush up such a boycott on that basis alone. On the other hand, I believe ABC News would subtly promote Disney and fail to report bad things about them even if these products & policies were conservative or ideologically neutral. At the very least they would soft pedal any bad stories and they certainly wouldn't harp on their corporate parent's embarassing news like they did with, say...Enron.