Patrick at Respectfully Republican, and a reader and commenter here, says he's keeping an eye on me, waiting to see if I'll reveal my true political colors. He says the: "Seattle Times chief political reporter seems conflicted at times on his reporting of the U.S. Senate race. At times, he seems to like to dog Maria Cantwell -- other times he picks on McGavick."

I think the challenge for Postman is remaining impartial, and that's why he alternates between dogging on the candidates. True, his articles are "news analysis" -- but I've often wondered whether he will pick a side in this Senate race.

No, I won't. I won't even come close. I am a reporter who blogs about politics. I won't take sides and I won't express my political opinions. When a candidate says something that needs a reality-check, I do that, regardless of their party and regardless of whether the last one I reality-checked, or praised, or merely commented on, was a Republican or Democrat.

I know it has become something of a sport to try to divine what I really mean in what I write, but I'm not so complicated. I write what I mean, and there is no P.o.P decoder ring to show you the secret partisan messages embedded in my posts.

When I was starting in this business in Alaska a politician complained a story was unfair because his opponent's name was the first word in more paragraphs than his was. He said his campaign consultant told him that's how the press skews stories. In the early '90s a local media watchdog group said the answer to finding a reporter's bias is in the last paragraph of a story. There, the theory went, was where the spin would belie the supposed objectivity -- as if by the last paragraph we had become exhausted by trying to look fair.

Why is it so hard to believe that a reporter is not driven by a hidden agenda?

This has been an issue since the first day of this blog, when some suggested it would be difficult if not impossible to write an objective political blog. And not just that it'd be impossible, but somehow objectivity would be misplaced on a blog ... that because I write here in MovableType instead of Word, different rules apply.

In June when I wrote about Gov. Chris Gregoire's refusal to talk about her view on gay marriage, Daniel Kirkdorffer left a comment saying, "if you are going to ask politicians for their position on gay marriage, don't hide behind your press credentials - tells us what your own position is why don't you. Tell us so we can gauge for ourselves whether your reporting is biased or not."

Nope, not going to do it. I think what's important is to write stories that are fair, accurate and objective. You can tell that by reading what I write day in and day out. Watch over the days and you'll see I don't play favorites. That's how you can gauge whether my reporting is biased or not.

ParticleMan's advice on day one was much closer to the mark: "SLAP DOWN SPIN!!!"

Patrick is watching me with the eye of a practiced Kremlinologist as he senses that I may be about to pull back the curtain on my true feelings, at least in the Senate race.

Afterall, his newspaper's editorial position seems to be inching closer to supporting McGavick -- or at least his positive approach to campaigning. Postman was also on Goldy's radio show last night discussing the race, giving commentary on several of the finer points.

There is zero connection between anything I write and the position of The Seattle Times editorial board. Never has been, never will. There is an inviolable wall between the news and editorial operations. That's how it's supposed to be, and that's how it works here.

I welcome the close monitoring. But I'm convinced that not only can objectivity work on the web, but that we need more of it in an increasingly partisan world.

UPDATE: I just saw this report from the Pew Internet & American Life Project. It turns out I'm in the minority on one point, Pew says one-third of bloggers see their work as a form of journalism, though 56 percent "spend extra time trying to verify facts they want to include in a post either 'sometimes' or 'often.' "

Other on-topic findings:

Bloggers are major consumers of political news and about half prefer sources without a particular political viewpoint.

• 72% of bloggers look online for news or information about politics; by contrast, just 58% of all internet users do so.

• 45% of bloggers say they prefer getting news from sources that do not have a particular political point of view; roughly the same percentage of the general internet population agrees.

• 24% of bloggers prefer political news from sources that challenge their viewpoint; and 18% choose to use sources that share their political viewpoint. Again, bloggers' responses are similar to those of the general internet population.