This is Liz Franzell with Crawford Media Group and today I’m joined by Travis Pander, Director of Digital Media here at Crawford and George Witten, founder and director of a Christian news outlet called “Worthy News”. We’ll be talking about how important it is to get news that brings truth and how worthy news is instrumental in doing that. Welcome to our program George. Hey thank you for having me. Can’t wait. George tell us a little bit about yourself and why you started “Worthy News”. Well first off I basically started “Worthy News” because I wanted to inform the watchman about what’s happened in the world. So “Worthy News” was found on this idea watching “Worthy” therefore I’m pray always to meet down worthy to escape these things. So you know the first person that’s “watch”. An ancient Hebrew word for “watch” was the word “notes” “shrie” and it happens to be the modern Hebrew word for “Christian”. So the idea of “Worthy News” was actually to equip believers to be watchmen to pray through the events that are significant and hence worthy. So we cover what’s happened around the world, what’s happened in Israel, what’s happened in the United States, what’s happened in believers. And we try to make it like a condensed prayer point by point. And then on top of that I’ve been a pastor for 25 years and so every day that I send out a worthy brief that covers the news also send out a daily devotion. So I cover really, I try to give believers really not just milk but really a lot of meat to really you know get them prepared for the coming of the work that they maybe found worthy to escape these things. So that’s the whole the whole understanding of where the news how it got started and why we do what we do. So what type of news do you report? Is it national, international, local? Everything. We cover the world, we cover. So right now we have journalists and truth and food at best room and then we have journalists in the US. So we cover what’s happening around the world, we cover what’s happening in Israel in great detail what’s happening in the United States. And then obviously what’s happened in believers because this is probably going to be the most unique time you know for the Lord to work. Forget that we’re going to see so many things happen that are going to be mind-boggling and I just want believers to really understand everything that’s happening. Yeah, Travis you post where they news on our KLTT and KLZ websites. What are the results that you’ve seen since you’ve been doing this? Yeah so getting content for any website is a challenge and especially for ministries and things like that and that’s why what George does is so important. We’ve been able to pull his feet under our website so Christians can see what’s going on around the world. And it’s getting a lot of attention, people are coming to the site and reading the news and they’re also finding George through that as well which is great because it has so many good resources outside of the news in addition to that. So getting great results, people love it, we get emails every day about the content that we post from Worthy. George, you bring truth. We know mainstream media, let’s just say we don’t always hear what’s really going on. Right. So what are some of the things that you’re seeing out there? Let’s talk a little bit about God, should you you mentioned we’ve got a whole new era coming up I think happening tomorrow. And things going, a lot of things going on in Israel. What would you like to talk about? That’s a broad subject. We could talk about all kinds of things. So the understanding of where the news was, when we first started Worthy News, it was much like a throat report. We used to link to different services. And then right around 2016, obviously we started getting more of an indication that the news really isn’t as truthful as it appears to be. And it really, you almost saw an agenda, a narrative being spoken of through the news instead of just facts. And so right around that time, I just felt the words speaking to me, we just need to become our own news agency. So that’s when we started hiring writers. Now we have journalists and truth and food to pest from throughout the United States. And now the other thing was I wanted to, you know, we have a very simple thing in, in, where the news, we don’t run any ads. We’re just completely faith-based, you know, I have a very similar saying if it’s God’s will, it’s God’s will. And God’s will is for his people to be informed with truth. And you know, I’m not allowed to lie. It’s kind of a creed, you know, that’s not that lie. Somehow or the media doesn’t understand this. But you know, the first thing that the word said about the last days in Matthew 24, the very first thing he said was, “Take heed that no man deceive you.” That we’re surrounded by liars. So it shouldn’t be such a crazy thing that the media is trying to lie to us all the time. They’re just proven the words of Jesus true. That’s all that’s taken place. But at the same time we as believers, we have to be properly informed about what’s happening. Why things are significant? For example, we just did a spray today of Israel striking a site in Syria. And Israel doesn’t comment on these sites, but the Syrian news agency goes ahead and details it. Well, the town that they hit was only six miles south of Damascus. And why is it so significant? Well, the town is a place where what’s called the 12th or so go? For a retreat. It’s actually a place that Shiite Muslims go to get healing. And this is the town that was struck today. So we didn’t just cover the fact that Israel hit the town of Damascus. We’ve covered the entire significant spiritual significance of it. Because without understanding the spiritual word that’s before we played out, how can we properly pray into the events that can play? And so the idea of worthy news was really not just to give you news, give you the background of the spiritual word that’s taken place. And it’s in much more detail that you’ll never find on another. You won’t find that aspect. What do you think they are AP or Reuters or anything else? So that’s worthy news. Yeah, it’s just to equip believers. And I think if people responded that, I think we all see that lying in the media. And I think that’s why it was so neat for me to find that and want to pull it into KLTT and KLZ. It’s truth. And the truth is so strange when we’re surrounded by drug reports and ABC news and fact checks and even White House transcriptions that come out edited. So I think that’s why it’s so refreshing to see worthy news telling facts. That’s what it is. I used to love drug reported. It used to be the only place I’d go in the 90s and early 2000s. And you can track Matt Judges descent into the mainstream media. It was sad. Right. Well, I have a feeling that he actually sold each probably under NDA and can’t reveal that it sold. I think that’s what’s happened. I don’t know. I don’t think he actually runs anymore. I think he probably got a payday and said, you know what? I can retire for a long time. That’s my feeling on that. But you know, it is what it is. I can go on for hours about drug report. So we’ll spare you. So George, you actually have reporters out in the field. Oh, yeah. Well, so the great thing about what’s happening is so my reporters are actually international. So the lady that’s in the room actually was part of my church in Israel. And she actually came to visit. She was a reader worthy. She just got in shape. She started getting her devotions. She didn’t even know how she was getting them. She goes ahead and has family and is her mom is Israeli. She comes over to Israel for a wedding and she you know comes to the service because I love this. I love this brand new believer. We’ve been cycled for six years right next to her and she actually was a lawyer. She was a lawyer. She has her stepfather was British. So she spent time in Great Britain, Australia. She lives in Rome now. Where her mom is. She speaks multiple languages. And so she’s our reporter on the ground in Rome. Our reporter in Budapest actually comes from a Dutch background. His father has been a long time reader. He gets our daily devotions and he speaks like you know, German. He lives in Hungary now. You know, he speaks Dutch. He speaks English. And so I have these writers that have been doing what they’ve been doing for a long, long time, but now they’re international. So you know, if there’s something that happens in a German newspaper, you know, I have reporters actually can read what they’re saying. And actually because what literally happens is in translation, we lose with the stories really all about. For example, last week we did this story on Christopher Fobia. Christian Fobia. I don’t I mean, I came and say the word you know, it’s like Islamophobia, but what happens to believers? And we covered in detail, you know, the churches that are being burned all over Europe, the things are happening that these Muslims that are immigrating to, you know, most people don’t realize Germany 22% of Syrians live in Germany now. I mean, I’m sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry. One in 20, I’m sorry, I said that wrong. One in 20 Syrians live in Germany now. That that’s how many Syrians have immigrated to Germany. And Germany has this massive looks like we look at immigration problem here in the US. We say, what in the world is going on here? How these, all these people going? And what’s happened is that you see this mass influx coming into areas and they’re literally changing the demographics of France, of Germany. And what’s really kind of bizarre, I don’t want to say this in negative because I’m afraid that people won’t have me come and speak. But what’s happened since I’ve been redeployed to the states and I’ll say that in a very, I don’t have time to explain this story, but since this happened, I was one week after George Floyd in Minneapolis. I was in the middle of the Chasen Chattarides in Seattle. I was in the middle of the Portland riots. I was going to go speak at John the Con’s congregation on the day that they had the earthquake in Jersey. I was driving. I had to leave Florida because of Hurricane. I had to drive back to my where my parents live in Baltimore. And that’s the day the bottom of Bridge was hit. I scheduled to speak last week. I spoke the last week in Florida and Bradenton five days after the hurricane. So the Lord has I cannot even begin to tell you, I do not book more than a week or two out in advance. I do not book means God, where things means God or things. The vine appointment is for me to preach revival. And in doing so, he leads me to where news things happen. I was doing a revival in Indiana literally an hour and a half away from Springfield, Ohio. When that whole thing went down with they ate the dogs. I was an hour to have I actually was able to go there. And the first thing I go to any location, you get loose and grab I talk to the passers. I mean passers to pass, I can talk to passers about what they’re seeing on the ground. And some of the details I’m getting are like, are you getting me? How does not be reported? Yeah, there’s no voice for us. There’s no voice for us. And so that’s where we step in. We are the voice for the believers that are being censored on Facebook for the believers that are censored on Twitter or sorry X, formerly known as Twitter. And so that’s what where the news does. We are just as voice for the censored really. And at the same time we’re censored. I think what you’re doing is responding to the nothing to see here scenario with mainstream media. You’re saying, oh look. Yeah. And I think you’re also showing us what journalism looks like, right? We got caught in the digital age and everybody wants to hit a button and have their story right itself. But you’re going out into the field and doing journalism the way we did it. The beginning days of our Republic, you know. What was really crazy? I mean, just to give you a heads up. So, Hungary’s right next to Ukraine. So when the whole war broke out, my journalist was going to the NGOs that were serving in Ukraine to get the insight where it was happening to Ukraine. So we were, you know, when you talk about hands on the field, it wasn’t just here, you know, you know, I lived in Jerusalem where I lived in Israel for 20 years. I lived in Jerusalem for a short while. I have a town outside the Dead Sea. And you know, when everything is happening, I have contacts on the ground. They can go ahead and tell me what’s actually happening. And so this is like, this is a different dynamic because, and since we’ve been doing more than this in society, 99, I literally have passed her contacts all over the world. And so when something happens, you know, say Nigeria or whatever, I can have pastors that go ahead and send me an email. I actually just had a pastor send me an email that I misspelled something wrong. Because I had a church, had a pastor in Nigeria until we have a phone or a rock. We’re visiting with George Witten, founder and director of Worthy News and Travis Pander, director of digital media here at Crawford. And we’ve been talking about his Christian news outlet called Worthy News. George, tell our listeners where they can go to find out about your news. I’ll just go to WorthyNews.com, but you know what you can do now is you can go right to your own radio station. That’s right. Now you run our syndicated news on the radio station. So, hey listen, we’re glad to provide it. We just want to be a beacon of truth in the crazy world that we live in. And if there’s any other chance that you want to see what else he’s got, shoot us an email. We’re happy to respond to that. He’s got so many products. There’s no way we could put all those on the website. But I do encourage you to go to kalesyradio.com or 670kltt.com right on the front page or all of the headlines and almost all of those come from George and WorthyNews. And you will love the reporting. There’s the synced stories. They’re well written and you know they’re coming from the source, which is so important right now. George, thank you so much for joining us today. Hey, thank you so much for having me. Thanks, George. Cheers. [MUSIC]
