The Lutheran Vegan

I may be the only populist conservative to admit it, but I actually like NPR, National Public Radio. Since I was a youngster, I’ve been a listener to WNYC in New York City for Morning Edition and All Things Considered in the afternoon. There was that time I listened to Brian Lehrer religiously on the radio. And yes, I even donated to WNYC and WNET, the local public television station in New York. 

Today, I listen to NPR podcasts, including “On the Media” specifically. People who know me can’t compute that someone who hates the government spending money on billionaire Big Bird and left-leaning newscasts still wants National Public Radio and Television to survive. It became a habit as a young person, and it stuck with me. I disagree with the politics of NPR, but I admire them for standing up for what they believe in. 

I also have a subscription to the digital version of the New York Times and read it daily. But Rupert Murdoch’s New York Post newspaper is still my favorite. The news website edited by John Solomon, Just the News, is also a favorite. I pay their $4.99 monthly subscription, so I don’t see ads. Breitbart is also bookmarked and a daily read. And before you ask, yes, I am a member of the Breitbart Fight Club. 

CNN, MSNBC, and NewsNation used to be on my TV news cycle, but now that I’ve ended my Fios TV subscription, I’m off those networks, and honestly, I don’t miss them. 

I watch Real America’s Voice and love the War Room show with Steven K. Bannon. Newsmax is still a favorite of mine, even without a cable subscription. Fox News Channel is still a favorite, though I listen to it primarily through my SiriusXM subscription. I do have several podcasts I favor, a list too long to enumerate. Though a couple of my favorites come from Andrew Marchand (sports media writer from The Athletic) and Morning Wire from the Daily Wire.

I do miss sports on Fios – specifically the local sports stations MSG, YES, and SNY. I’ve learned to live without the monthly $18 sports fee on the cable bill and love it. I can always catch highlights on X or even on The Athletic sports news site owned by the New York Times. Dave Sims and Susyn Waldman on Yankee radio broadcasts are a good listen. Michael Kay on ESPN Radio 880 AM is one of those sports hosts whose passion comes through, but not in a nasty way. 

I thought about the topic of media and news earlier today as I wrote a journal entry for Monday. In a conversation highlighted in an earlier post, Garrett and I talked about what I like to do when not receiving cancer treatment. Our talk started to center around media and sports. 

He admitted that he’s never paid for cable, nor does he ever intend to. Admittedly, Garrett uses his parents’ cable sign-in to watch Mets games on the MLB app. He pays for Spotify and Paramount+. Through his mobile phone subscription, he gets free Netflix, Apple TV, and Hulu (with ads). He calls himself a fallen-away sports fan who used to be tied in with ESPN, FS1, and the National Football League. Today, he is still a Mets fan, likes the Jets, and sometimes thinks about the Knicks. Paying to watch the games? Not on his dance card. 

Garrett was surprised when I told him that I had a music subscription to Apple Music and YouTube Premium that comes with YouTube Music, but I don’t listen to the Music. I get the YouTube Premium service because I would rather pay to get rid of the ads that are randomly inserted into videos at the wrong time. For some reason, Garrett thinks I am too old to listen to streaming music, but he doesn’t know that I was there from the beginning, even stealing a song or two from Napster back in the day.

He was even more surprised when I said I like to listen to the radio. The real over-the-air radio. And he started to laugh when I told him I purchased a small transistor radio on Amazon so I could walk around listening to WFAN or 1010 WINS without opening an app on my phone. I told him that in his car, he has a radio – he, too, can listen to real radio when he’s driving around. 

My media consumption has changed over the years. Before becoming a pastor, I was heavily involved in cable television and, when it became available during my time in seminary, XM satellite radio. Over the twenty years of my ministry, how we learn about what is happening in the world or how we’re entertained has changed dramatically. Young people today probably haven’t gone to the local park with friends and listened to music blasting on a boombox. They look at me weirdly when I speak of these times, and that I’ve never produced a TikTok video.