Wake Up, Look Up

Hello everyone and thanks for listening to Wake Up, Look Up, a podcast where we connect events happening in real time to the gospel of Jesus Christ. I'm Zach Weihrauch, and in today's episode we're asking the question, can you trust your feed? This is prompted by a pretty disturbing article I read in the Wall Street Journal recently about the rise of political social media influencers. people who build their platform on covering the news from a quote-unquote independent point of view. Now, the starting point of this is that many of us are losing confidence in traditional news outlets. We, we don't think they get things right. They read in their bias. And so as a result we're looking for non-traditional places to go for news and people are filling that market. So on YouTube or TikTok or Instagram, influencers are rising, purporting to cover the news in a way that traditional news outlets are not reporting, to be the truth tellers in a culture of non truth telling. The problem is, is that a closer examination reveals that actually they're not independent at all. In fact, many of them are being paid large sums to push the issues that they're pushing. Not because they're independent or because they tell the truth, but because they're making money. Six-figure payments are going out from marijuana lobbyists, from solar companies, foreign government interests. I mean just think about this. Israel for example, paid $900,000 to social media influencers to represent pro Israel views on social media. Qatar has, has offered lavish trips to social media influencers who will push their interest as their own. So the social media influencer isn't coming on their channel and saying, hey everybody, just full disclosure, I've been paid for this position. They're just supporting the legalization of marijuana or a pro-Qatar view because they've been paid to do it. So while you think you're getting independent, you're actually getting a paid for commercial. And of course because the Trump administration is in power, social media influencers who are closer to the Trump administration get paid more because of the access that they have. Which means if you're listening to this and you tend to think in a right wing fashion, especially the social media influencers you're listening to are probably being paid for their opinions. Now the reason why this matters is because if we move off of one biased news agency to what we think is an independent one, they can take us by the nose and lead us just about anywhere. I can't help but think about the words of Jesus in Matthew 7 that they come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. They come to you as truth tellers, in other words, but inside, they're just pushing a position they've been paid for. And they don't care if it separates you from family members. They don't care. They if it causes fights in your workplace. They don't care about your mental and emotional health. They are in business for themselves. They're building a brand they want to leverage to actually feed their own family. And I just want you to know that because again, a buzzword for Christians in 2026 is discernment. Discernment is the ability to know what is good for you and what is bad, what is true and. And what is not. And at the end of the day, unless you are looking into stories for yourself, evaluating facts for yourself, unless you're taking in news with a critical eye to say, for all I know, this person's being paid to represent this, I'm going to have to think about this for myself. you probably are being led astray. And if all that sounds exhausting, I have an idea. Just turn it all off. Because the news that matters to you is how your teenager's day at school went, or how your spouse is doing, or, whether or not your friend's mother or father is healthy. Real life stuff. I know. In 2026, because we have the world literally in the palm of our hand in the form of our smartphone, we feel as though we must be informed about everything all the time. But being informed about everything all the time anymore because of people being paid really just means being deceived about all the time. So if discernment is exhausting, deletion might be your option. Take the app off your phone. A little less time going down the YouTube rabbit hole, a little more time at the family dinner table. The result of that would be not only are you not being deceived, but you're probably happier and healthier and closer to Jesus. Can you trust your feed? No. And can you trust yourself to discern? If not, turn it off. Hey, thanks for watching this episode of Wake Up, Look Up. If you enjoyed it, please help us get the word out by sharing it with someone you think might benefit from it. And while you're here, make sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel to get further content or even download the CCC app, where you'll find even more resources to help you grow in your faith and relationship with Jesus Christ.

Have an article you’d like Zach to discuss? Email us at wakeup@ccchapel.com!