While they may not have direct power, they set a tone and thru their leadership and appointments have a great deal of control over things. You may not blame the POTUS directly, but the administration they form around themselves is still usually an extension of that mentality.

Actually, balance is about weight, so the point is to give the various sides of the arguments the weights they actually deserve and not treating them all as equal, which happens far too much when people claim to be "balanced."

The perfect example is the Intelligent Design vs. Evolution debate. The fact that some outlets try to put them on the same level and treat them as equal, but opposite opinions is not balanced reporting.

I used to own an older Inspiron from Dell which was huge. You will hate it the first time you have to take it thru an airport screening.

It was an ok machine, but way too large to really be considered a "lap"-top.