I’ve written about bias before. A visit to Borders spurred me to revisit the issue after so much time. (That’s not to say that I don’t think about bias and fairness issues, just that I don’t often write about them.)

On this recent book-shopping expedition, I spent a lot of time reading through the store’s “Journalism” section. The three or four shelves plainly bore the label “Journalism” on a stark, black placard. What, might you ask, does Borders include under that heading? Not much of what my professors and mentors might consider true and fair journalism. Under that heading, one might hope to find an Associated Press Stylebook, or perhaps the ubiquitous Strunk & White The Elements of Style. At least, that’s what I learned to associate with the craft of journalism - from a host of mentors and teachers all better educated than I am.

Instead, there were books by provocateurs Michael Moore and Ann Coulter. The reefer magazine High Times even offered a collection of (quite interesting) interviews featuring such names as Dave Chappelle and Peter Tosh. A whole library of books, perhaps better labeled “Media Studies,” ran the gamut of opinions from severe right to extreme left.

Only a few of the selections included anything I might like to define as journalism. Even those were subjective. For example, books by New York Times reporter Judith Miller. If I had a nickel for each time I’d heard her credibility and integrity challenged since the weapons of mass destruction fallout, I’d have at least a couple of dollars. Aren’t Times reporters supposed to be unassailable beacons of neutrality for other lowly journalists like myself to look up to?

Not anymore, thanks Jayson Blair. Forty-five percent of readers, according to a Pew Center survey, believe little or nothing they read in their daily newspaper. How many of the rest, do you think, believe that journalists are at least fair and even-handed?

Apparently not the people who buy and stock books for one of the largest chains in the country, Borders.