A Google search revealed that Snopes.com is owned by David and Barbara Mikkelson, who live in Southern California and are Obama supporters. An interested reader (unknown to me) suspected that Snopes had a liberal bias after discovering several "half-truths" and distortions.
Compare their analysis of the Obama/Ayers connection with truthorfiction.com's analysis of the same subject. Snopes minimizes the connection, categorizing the rumor as a "Partial Truth," while truthorfiction calls it a "Truth" and, in fact, references a CNN expose of the two, as well as a Wall Street Journal article about their connection. Snopes not only does not reference either source cited above, but instead, lists a quote from an Obama spokesman as its main source.
Another comparison of Snopes vs. Truthorfiction is their treatment of the email regarding "Obama's 50 lies." Snopes adds editorial comments favoring Obama on unproven statements or even on proven ones where the comments are that he is "taken out of context."