The New American Pravda and How to Navigate It
Pravda means “True” or “Truth” and was a newspaper published in the Soviet Union from 1918-91 as the official news organ of the communist state. It contained pure propaganda–telling the Russian people what their totalitarian bosses wanted them to hear.
I traveled into the USSR in the mid-1970’s. At the border they confiscated Bibles, tracts, even a copy of TIME magazine I carried in my backpack. I asked why? They said bluntly: “The materials are anti-Soviet.” In other words, they denied free speech and wanted a monopoly on public information.
We now see a New American “Pravda” flowing throughout the United States–the secular media and it’s woke/cancel culture.
Here’s how I’ve learned to navigate it.
The New American Pravda and How to Navigate It
For most of American history, the Judeo-Christian worldview prevailed in our civil polity and the general mores of society. For example, we believed that there was such a thing as Truth (Jesus Christ and the Bible) and we believed in telling the truth because of the eighth commandment.
But those who now control the power structures in this nation (the presidency, Congress, secular media, Tech Giants and the Deep State bureaucracy) no longer believe in absolute (biblical) truth nor the need to pursue or share it.
Possibly half of America has been persuaded to follow their lawlessness and believe their lies–either of omission or commission.
Three well known media insiders, Bill O-Reilly, Sharyl Attkisson and Bernard Goldberg, have warned of this drift for years (Goldberg in Biased: A CBS Insider Exposes How The Media Distorts the News and Attkisson in Slanted: How the New Media Taught Us to Love Censorship and Hate Journalism). Media bias has now reached dangerous proportions in our nation and could foreshadow the destruction of our nation and culture.
I wrote about this ominous trend in the first chapter of my book River of God.
Ultimately, life comes down to who you trust. As a people we once trusted in “One Nation Under God.”
No longer.
In 2021, it is critical for people who care about their faith and nation to carefully choose the sources of information they consume daily. It is no longer safe to simply turn on the local channel or read the Yahoo! news feed.
You are being lied to with an agenda to destroy this nation what it stands for.
More on that next week.
Bill O’Reilly recently explained how secular news is currently disseminated in the USA. It begins with meetings and phone calls on K Street in Washington in cooperation with the New York Times and Washington Post. Power brokers on those calls set the language agenda for how the news will be shared that day.
Some examples: “Russia Collusion,” “No Evidence of Election Fraud,” and “Inciting Insurrection” are words carefully chosen to set the desired narrative. It doesn’t matter if they are true. This is what the media elites want you to believe. The Times and Post then print their headlines and stories and the Associated Press (AP), Reuters, and other news services send today’s talking points to most newspapers and newsrooms in the country.
In the past, publishers and editors would choose to accept or reject the news slant. Today they simply print it–and the lies (slant or bias) go forth as the “truth” of what is happening in our nation. If you still read a newspaper (which I don’t recommend), notice the by-line on the story.
You can no longer trust the Times, Post, Reuters, AP, CBS, NBC, ABC, MSNBC, CNN, Google, Facebook, or your local channel or paper. In important areas of knowledge, you are being fed continual propaganda.
This is a crucial time to pray for new media structures and voices and reject the New American Pravda. In the future, this could be Donald Trump’s greatest gift to the American nation–exposing these totalitarian trends.
Since many of you have asked me what news sources I trust, I will share them here. The list isn’t exhaustive and I’m sure I’ll leave out some of your favorites. By category and order of importance, here are the ones I trust more than others.
THE BIBLE
I have read it from cover-to-cover, 4-5 chapters a day, for the past forty-nine years. It is my life and world GPS containing God’s “special revelation” of grace in Jesus Christ and historical commentary on the issues of the day. As you know, the Bible is a library of sixty-six books on creation, human origins, history, wisdom literature, prophetic books, Gospels, Early Church beginnings, letters, and the consummation of Christ’s Kingdom in the End Times.
For years, missionaries said they carried “a Bible in one hand and a newspaper in the other.” After starting with the Bible, here are other forms of media I use for input.
NEWS POD/BROADCASTS
My number one source for news coverage is Bill O’Reilly.com and the “No Spin News.” Bill is a God-fearing Catholic with a biblical worldview (as opposed to Joe Biden). He gives a personal forty-minute podcast Monday-Thursdays on-line. It is fact-laden and practical–and growing into an audience of millions. It is worth every cent of its $68 a year cost.
I became a lifetime member a year ago–$325–and received all nine of his “Killing” books free. They are the best-selling history series ever. Buying them makes your membership gratis. I think Bill will be broadcasting for at least another six or seven years.
Bill also hosts a daily radio broadcast called the “O’Reilly Update” on 300 stations around the country that you can hear on the air or his website. It’s a great take-off of Paul Harvey’s famous “The Rest of the News.” I sometimes listen at lunchtime.
Dick Morris.com also sends out a free/daily lunch alert that you can get on-line. Dick is a very astute political observer and historian who advised President Clinton in the 90’s but shares a strong Judeo-Christian worldview today.
I also look for news alerts and broadcasts on Newsmax or One America Network. I like some of the commentators on Fox, but do not support the direction the network is taking.
RADIO
Rush Limbaugh’s three-hour daily broadcast is the largest radio program in the world–for good reason. I listen to it primarily when driving around in my car. Rush understands the thinking and objectives of secular progressives better than anyone in the industry and his current fight with stage four lung cancer has deepened his faith in Christ.
WEB SOURCES
The Daily Signal puts out an excellent daily summary of key news stories. I also like Western Journal and receive commentary and action points from the Heritage Foundation and Family Research Council. Intercessors for America provides a daily prayer alert that helps you understand the spiritual battle we face.
NEWSPAPERS & MAGAZINES
The weekly Epoch Times is probably the only newspaper I now trust. It has an anti-Communist China bias, but much of that is probably true. The Wall Street Journal editorial page is sound, but not their news bureau.
I still subscribe to Charisma Magazine for its Spirit-filled articles and missions perspective. Also Acts & Facts (Institute for Creation Research) and Imprimis (Hillsdale College). Both of those are free.
INDIVIDUALS
Through various websites I also look for cultural commentary from Victor Davis Hanson, Dennis Prager, Franklin Graham, Newt Gingrich, Mark Levin, Cal Thomas, Larry Elder and others. I usually don’t have time to listen to other podcasts–only occasionally.
These are my current sources of input. They form my “newspaper”–with God’s Word in my other hand.
Be aware of the growing New American Pravda. It wants to propagandize you. Choose your sources carefully and prayerfully.
Most importantly: share the Good News!
And listen to those you trust.
You have just indicted yourself by your simple choice of sources. Why not try a mix of right wing and left wing and some in the middle to give yourself a balanced view. That’s what I do. If these are the only sources you claim, then we are in real trouble.
…if these are the only sources you distrust, then we are in real trouble!
You people need serious psychiatric help. Soon. Calling the Epoch Times and Daily Signal legitimate news sources? LOL!
Finally, a voice of reason! Thank you.
The “You People” label is not a sign of a rational conversation!
God will not welcome blasphemers into his kingdom. Make of that what you will. But I know I won’t be part of a congregation where the leaders threaten and lie. Just sayin’.
For years I have contributed to YWAM but will immediately stop. I cannot support someone who condones the lies propogated by the media that is not listed on the “Lying Media”. I am a Christian who follows the Bible of being a fruit inspector rather than relying on media. I look for loving, kind, charitable honest leaders. Not fornicators, adultors, thieves and liars. Please open the eyes and ears that our gracious loving father has given you
Hi, Linda. Thanks for taking the time to write and for blessing YWAMers with the monies you donate.
Please do not stop giving to worthy missionaries just because of my opinions. That would be very unkind and unjust to other innocent people.
I do not speak for YWAM. You will notice that the site this is not an official YWAM site, but my own. My bio is simply mentioned at the bottom.
We have a full range of opinions in Youth With A Mission and believe in free speech. We do not believe in wokeness, cancel culture, and the meanness that is spewed on social media. As you said, all must be shared via the fruits of the Spirit.
For example, the leader of YWAM San Francisco and I sit on opposite sides of the political spectrum. We we love and respect each other and have wholesome debates over the issues of the day–in love. That’s healthy for both us, and is true of YWAM all over the world.
I’m not sure of your age, but I am 68 years old. I have seen the media tilt increasingly to the “left” (secular, socialist, Marxist etc.) throughout my lifetime. Same with politicians. There used to be little difference between the two major political parties. There is now a huge gap in policy perspectives.
I don’t want America to become another USSR (as my article alluded to).
In the 1980s I worked on Capitol Hill for six years. At the time, I read the Washington Post and NY Times and they were different. “Biased” as Bernard Goldberg writes, but not radically so.
That is not true today.
On Bill O-Reilly’s “No Spin News” (which you criticized) last night, he showed a graph of the change in radical thinking among the TV networks. It was from a recent Pew study. When he was at Fox four years ago (he was the number one cable news show in the world due to factual basis and political fairness), 40% of his audience were Democrats and 60% Republicans. Today 95% of R’s watch Fox and only 5% D’s.
And the opposite is true. 95% of Democrats watch CNN and only 5% R’s. The point? The nation has become polarized over the biblical traditional worldview of policy on the one hand and the secular atheistic view on the other.
For all his faults, Donald Trump governed from the traditional biblical side. In fact, Ben Shapiro shared an enlightening article yesterday on how Trump’s policies were “normal” (in American history) and President Biden’s are actually “abnormal” (more radically secular in nature). Very true–and easily provable.
I did not like Donald Trumps immoral past or personality. But his policies honored God and His Word. In government, it the policies that count (affect people).
We’ve had many immoral men who committed their sins WHILE being president such as FDR, JFK and Bill Clinton. That has horrible. But it was their policies that truly affected the nation–and most of theirs were good.
I encourage you to think about the difference between personality, character flaws and worldview policies. That’s a key to wise voting.
Of course, you’re welcome to your opinion, as I am mine. Thanks again for writing. May God richly bless you–and America as a nation.
Well-said!
Kathi Sue was saying “well-said” to Linda’s comments.
propaganda? the nonsense that you charlatans have been spewing for decades is actual propaganda. and not of it even remotely true.
So true@
How does someone such as myself, who holds to conservative, Bible-based values, even open an honest and respectful conversation nowadays with someone who fires back with totally unhelpful and dismissive labels such as “you charlatans”? Wouldn’t a much more fruitful starting place be to acknowledge that differing views may have some merit, and that a more important goal than broad-brush demeaning could be finding some kind of common ground, where we might see through the hurtful verbiage to the fragile and fearful heart of our fellow human being?
Thank you to Ron, who, while having the courage to take a stand, preserves the inherent dignity and value of all people, even those who strongly disagree with him.
I’m with you Ron. I watch No Spin nightly and Epoch Times. We are in a pitched battle for truth.
All the mainstream media are lost souls parroting their talking points.
If you think there’s truth in Epoch Times and “No Spin,” that’s as sad as you believing Ron.
Absolutely! The epoch times os extremely biased and right wing . Absolute BS
Why don’t you practise what you preach, why would I believe anything you write just because you say it’s so.
Beware of false gods and wanna be faith healers. Those who always lash out make it their agenda to make judgements on others i take your propaganda as it is propaganda.
I’ve known Ron personally and from his blog for many years now, and I can tell you that Ron Boehme practices what he preaches. Even knowing this about him, I do not take what Ron writes as truth just because he says so. I give careful consideration to his words because they are based on something higher and more reliable than Ron’s own wisdom. His Revive America Blog entries are believable not just because I largely agree with Ron, but because he bases his worldview and commentary on the only reliable source of truth: the True God of the Bible, the only True Healer, the only just Judge of all. I am grateful that Mr. Ron Boehme does NOT lash out, nor does he promote propaganda, but is willing to put himself on the line for the big picture Truth and has the courage to call out those whose worldview excludes or even intentionally suppresses the Truth.