Scooby Doo & Sons, Ltd

I wonder who actually dreamt up the idea of a bookcase that revolves into a hidden room, and if anyone actually had one installed. I'm also wondering if I could get a quote for such an installation and from which builder?

Bias, huh? I think people need to learn one day that just because something/someone says something you don't like, doesen't mean they're biased. Or to accept that fundamentally, they are biased. You're biased, I'm biased - If we didn't have our own opinions we'd be horrid pale clones with albino eyes and enthusiastic work ethics. Bias doesen't have to be a bad thing, and it doesen't have to be hidden either. Bias is only a bad thing when the author decides to cloak the information that might endanger the credibility of their product; i.e. information that is impossible to be twisted or warped or that exposes the bias. Bias is a bad thing when it is passed off as truth. This blog is biased; the BNP are biased. Labour are biased and so is Colonel Dannat, the ex-Army head who recently joined the Conservatives. The Guardian is biased and the Telegraph is likewise polarised. It's human nature to think in terms of one's best interests; the BBC manages to stay biased because it draws a fine line between news and opinion, comedy and tragedy; the reason that the tabloids are so often maligned is that they too often blur this line and present someone's (intrinsically biased) opinion as the cold, hard, irrefutable truth.

It's an easy path to go down. "Man crashes car" is an easy example - a man has crashed a car. But once you pad out the story, add in a few quotes, you invite bias into the mix. Take a quote from the RAC, the council and say, his wife. The RAC, a commercial organisation can be taken for granted as biased towards their insurance policies and marketing efforts. The council, depending on their party affiliation, might comment on there not being a need to worry about the safety of roads, etc. His wife has concerns about the fact that her hubby has managed to wrap the Volvo around a tree. However, present the council quote as the primary source of information- then juxtapose it against the wife's opinion - and you can now headline the story "WIFE RECALLS CAR CRASH HORROR, COUNCIL DOESEN'T CARE" or something like that. I'm not great at headlines. But this is what papers do all the time. Just a few words either side of a quote can discredit it or give it supreme authority. Put that quote at the front end of an article and the entire story is then hijacked by the presence of that person's credibility.

I know that was an entirely simplified (and not brilliant) version of how you could skew an article to your own personal or editorial slant, but my conclusion is: don't trust the media - however much it reflects our society. Most of what is written in the papers is thoughroughly against the Code, anyway.