I’m guessing when you’re talking about the larger media syndicates out there, in which case, you’re asking for too much.
Most of those outlets prefer stories that create reactions from the spoon fed masses. If tweaking the narrative (i.e. spinning) a certain direction allows them to have more greater control and influence over their audience, then those larger outfits are going to spin spin spin until they get the result(s) they want. Much of their "objectivity" is given in very specific doses to enforce a farce of trust with the consumer, but they don't care in the long run about staying fair and balanced. They will run a story into the ground to milk it for all it's worth, even if it has a detrimental effect on the psyche of it's society.
Anything that delivers a bias or supports an agenda is looking to influence their audience… that's just the way it is. The larger they are, the more people they have to accommodate, i.e. lowest common denominator. We live in the era of media storms (rather, media created storms) and hollywood style dramatic news delivery (i.e. news "entertainment") so that likely won’t change for a very long time as long as the $$$ are still coming in from advertisers.
It is possible to get a balanced source, but you have to change the way you consume media and become familiar with sources outside of what most people are familiar with. If you're a little creative, you can be your own curator. You also have to think for yourself (you'd be surprised how many can't handle this step). Sometimes you have to question whether or not a source you are using that appears genuine and position is actually serving an underlying toxic agenda.
For example, I ran into this issue with one of the design blogs I followed. Everything looks good until I realized that the constant chatter of "being good enough" or "changing the world" is just another way to put the reader in desperate enough mentality to put you in one of their sponsors pockets to sign up for their service or courses. It ended up being 75% of it was the same spoon fed spin on the creative energy, with almost nothing new added except a new facade. There were some topics I was new to, but once the "new-ness" wore away, it was the same scratching of the surface. In other words, it was vapid. What's funny is those sources can sometimes make you feel worse about yourself (i.e. dependent as you mentioned) so you have to watch out for things like that as well.
My suggestion would be to stick to sources that are closer to the topic (smaller outfits with more to lose). They are almost always required to stay authentic in order to remain relevant to the reader, so you will get a good mixture of positive and negative spins on the issue. i.e. Find the local blogger or smaller websites that are more niche, specializing in certain areas and then add them to your personal feed, whether it's email or Twitter. Niche sites are also not as "big" per say, so they still focus enough on quality without being too small and generally put out enough content to keep you informed.
I recommend Twitter because it's much easier to unfollow/follow sources and your email won't get sold to companies and ending up in more SPAM every time you sign up for anything either. It's also very easy to quickly follow accounts putting out topics or news you are interested in and when I click the links the provider gets the revenue without an ad blocker. I also never miss breaking news (i.e. trending topics) because some of the designers or other interesting people I follow are chronic tweeters and will post something up if it's trending.
If you follow a few dozen of these, you will have a rich diverse (and dare I say, balanced) feed and you can tweak it however you wish. I follow a lot of blogs in the UK catering to my job, graphic design, web design, interior design, space exploration, animal rescue, various other things I find interesting and stimulating (and not depressing first thing in the morning!)… I also follow other local official organizations too, to learn how they are getting involved in community events.
For example, I am waiting for Trees for Houston to have another give away so I can go pick up a sapling in my yard.
It’s much more pleasant too than getting your news from that angry aunt who constantly posts about Trump and is filling up your feed with how the govt is out to get you. Don’t like the way one of the sites are going? Unfollow… find another and test drive it for a bit.
This article actually is interesting, talks about the decline of smaller outfits/blogging as a medium due to the expansion of social media. It’s worth a read if it’s your cup of tea. It's about an Iran blogger who returned to the internet after being in prison for his blog.
Iran's blogfather: Facebook, Instagram and Twitter are killing the web
https://www.theguardian.com/technolo...illing-the-web