Depending on the subject matter, you're more likely to get more objective reporting from local/regional press than nationals because local journalists tend to live in the area they're covering, so it's in their best interests to be straight with their reporting.
So you're saying we're likely to get more objective coverage from people who are more invested in the community in question? If a local journalist writes an unflattering story about new zoning laws taking place in her city, zoning laws that will send her child to another elementary school where the children do not score as high on standardized tests, would you assume she's more objective? When a local journalist writes positively about a highway extension that's going to level a "bad" neighborhood but make it easier for him to commute back and forth to his office downtown, would you not question his impartiality?
In fact, when reporting on a local story don't national news papers and stations usually defer to the AP or reporters from a local affiliate? Whenever something in my town makes national news, NPR generally has a reporter from our local affiliate on to talk about the issue. I think most of the local/regional news coverage is handled by reporters actually on the ground who live in the areas. I just don't see how local/regional news organizations would be any more or less objective than a national organization by being based in the area.
I guess I was talking more from my experience as a local reporter for four years in the UK. If I had developed a reputation for being unfair and unbalanced, no sources would have spoken to me or given me useful inside knowledge. The same principle is true to national and international press but being geographically confined to a particular area in my experience helps to focus the mind more. At least in my case it made want to take extra steps when possible to make sure I covered all angles and different viewpoints.
Erm, no, Journalism has been stuck in delivering biased information/junk facts for a long, long time, well before the Internet.