Over 50 million people viewed the last presidential debate. The aftermath still reverberates in many current conversations.

At least in my lifetime, I don’t recall another more consequential debate. One aspect of the debate particularly intrigued me. So, I developed a short quiz for individuals open to answer the questions. The answers I received reveal a stark pattern and two concerning observations.

As a young person I recall the advice to “be careful when raising politics or religion” in conversation unless willing to risk friends and family relationships. The advice was wise.

We think we hold opinions on politics and religion based on current issues. But more accurately, we react to other opinions in accordance with our individual belief system. This belief system comes to us principally through life experiences and education. We like our belief system and don’t like it being questioned.

With that caveat to the reader, I proceed.

The first question relates to the viewer’s debate reaction to President Joe Biden’s performance.

I think it is fair to say that he appeared less than sharp and gave some answers that could be described as not coherent.

So, the first question is: Were you surprised by the president’s performance? Please answer Yes or No.

The second question relates to the reader’s source for news. This is a question with answers being either A or B.

If your broadcast news sources are ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN and MSNBC, answer A. If they are Fox News and Newsmax, answer B.

The answers to the two questions were highly correlated. A particular answer to the first usually predicted the answer to the second. Invariably, individuals who were surprised by President Biden’s performance also use ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, MSNBC (or Mainstream, for short) as their primary broadcast news sources.

Individuals who were not surprised used Fox and Newsmax as their primary broadcast news source. Apparently, President Biden’s mental acuity decline over recent years was reported extensively on Fox and Newsmax, but not on Mainstream news, hence the surprise of certain viewers.

I make two observations from this analysis.

First, to be an informed citizen, we should be open and entertain all broadcast news sources. We need to resist the temptation of viewing only ones that are consistent with our belief systems. We need to also be cognizant that any broadcast news source has an incentive to “play” to perceived belief systems and values of the viewers they seek to attract. They want, and generate revenue from, our “eyeballs.”

Second, I mourn the loss of objectivity in broadcast news. Today, broadcast news is clearly about advocacy.

The media coverage prior to the debate clearly evidenced the advocacy.

To put another nail in objectivity’s coffin, the dean of the Stanford University Journalism School was recently quoted as favoring advocacy instead of objectivity as the goal of journalism. May God help us.