Now that the Iowa Republican Party’s Straw Poll is over (Michele Bachmann won), Texas Gov. Rick Perry announced his run for the presidency, and the Republicans intensified their race to that party’s nomination, we can probably expect more talk about how the media distorts news and plays favorites with its coverage of certain candidates.

In my experience, most of that criticism of “mainstream media” comes from Republicans, conservatives, Fox News and right-wing talk radio.

And it’s all nonsense. As a matter of course, agents of the media will report more about certain aspects of political races than others and will favor one candidate over another.

Let me say that again: Media bias is a matter of course.

Except for what could be called a golden age of journalism, where we saw Walter Cronkite and Edward R. Murrow, among others, journalism has always been a partisan activity. And even in that golden age, journalists had to make their editorial decisions on what content to broadcast and print. There is only so much air time; there is only so much space on a broadsheet.

Journalism has never been about relating all the facts in a “fair and balanced” way. Nor has it been about letting you decide.

The reason the “mainstream media” is generally on the political left is because that’s where most journalists are.

If you’re discontented with media coverage on an issue, do your own research and distribute the information. React to the events you hear about. Do your part to get us thinking. Write letters to your editor. Decades ago, most politicians had their publications. By “had their publications,” I mean exactly that — scores of politicians chartered, printed, edited and made money from newspapers whose sole purpose was to distribute their opinions and champion their causes. It was never about factual reporting.

And try as this newspaper might to report the news fairly, accurately and fully, sometimes we’ll mess up. Sometimes we won’t go out and find your opinion. So you’ll have to take the extra few minutes of your life to sit down, think it out and write a letter to us.

Maybe I hear Republicans complain more than Democrats because they’re too busy chasing profits to actually do something about media bias — such as participating in the dissemination of the information on which the movers and shakers in this and other countries act.

After all, the businessmen probably assume, something will eventually be done. The free market will fix it, of course.

Except it won’t. The market, free or enslaved, fixes nothing. People fix things. People who take it upon themselves to make a difference in the world, rather than just sitting back tending to their own needs and the gratification of their own wants, are the ones who fix things.

This Opinion section belongs to the ISU community members who write letters to the editor as much as it belongs to the columnists on staff.

If I find a considered opinion written by one of you in my inbox, you’ll find it printed on these pages as soon as possible.