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Alan's History
Because it's too long otherwise.

Life History:
Alan Murrow was born in Greensboro, North Carolina as one of his relatives, the great journalist Edward R. Murrow, was slowly ending his distinguished career in broadcast journalism. Alan grew up admiring his cousin, who moved from the largely rural areas outside Guilford County all the way up to one of the holy names of journalism. He and his sister, Rebecca Lee, played reporter in the neighborhood.

Alan and Rebecca Lee were very close. Some might call it a simple bond between siblings, but they were each other's best friends. Looking out for each other, sharing secrets, having inside jokes that baffled their parents. It all started to fade a little bit as Alan entered high school and left his little sister behind, and the two went in completely opposite directions.

In 1978, Alan Murrow enrolled in the College of William and Mary as a political science major. It is there that he met his future wife—Helen Baxter, also a PolySci major whose father was high up in the Carter administration. They moved in together in an off-campus apartment in 1980 and Alan proposed in December of that year. They married in a large ceremony on the Baxter family estate in the hills of northern Maryland in June 1981.

Alan’s marriage to Helen was a blessing in more ways than one. In 1982, Helen’s father was one step below the senior cabinet in the Reagan administration. Seeing a keen interest in reporting and noticing the family relation to the granddaddy of all broadcasters, Albert Baxter pulled some strings and got his son a job under the White House Press Secretary right out of college.

It was during the Reagan years that Alan started to become the far right moral conservative that he would be known as in his later career. Under the influence of the right-wing administration and his even more conservative father in law, Alan started to change. Like many people during the 1980s, he started leaning to the right.

In 1985, Helen became pregnant. Alan was delighted--his first born child, a son, was going to be coming into the world. This delight quickly changed to fear, however, when Helen's water broke two months early. Alan spent his Labor day weekend with his wife, watching her give birth to a stillborn child. It was this death that put Alan over the edge. Alan's conservative views became started to become fanatical. There must have been something wrong with the world for his first son to die.

To deal with the grief, Alan emotionally abandoned Helen and buried himself in his work. He worked his way up through the office of the Press Secretary through 1988, where he was appointed Deputy Press Secretary under President George H.W. Bush. By late 1989, it seemed that things were once again going well for the Murrow-Baxter family. Alan and Helen were even talking about trying to have another child. However, that all changed in 1990.

On August 3, 1990, two days after the start of the Gulf War and 11 days before his 31st birthday, Alan’s family came to visit their Georgetown townhouse. It was there that Rebecca Lee, Alan’s baby sister, came out to him as a lesbian.

Alan blasted his sister for her immoral choice and tried to convince her that being gay was not “right.” He tried to convince her that a choice to embrace homosexuality was a choice, and that she was turning her back to the Lord. Alan tried to get his parents' help in convincing her; however, his parents were less than willing to help him in his tirade. In fact, Michael and Susan Murrow had already known about Rebecca Lee’s secret for almost three years by then and were helping her hide it from her hateful, vengeful brother.

Hurt, Alan kicked his family out of his house. He only spoke with his mother once more.

Alan left political life in 1992, when the Democrats retook the presidency. Instead of working for a party that he despised, he was offered to be a commentator on NBC’s A Closer Look. He and Helen moved to New York to follow in his uncle’s footsteps as a great journalist.

However, this was not meant to be. Another failed pregnancy in 1993 even more solidified Alan's beliefs. Alan used his new found extremism to blast the Clinton administration and all those he perceived to be liberals or even slightly leaning towards the left. He even attacked some of those in his own party he believed to be not conservative enough. Ironically, he became the 90s incarnation of what Edward R. Murrow fought against in the 1950s, and his critics were not slow to notice it.

The year 2000 was the low point in Alan’s life—A Closer Look was canceled due to low ratings. A few months later in November, Helen filed for separation against Alan, citing “irreconcilable differences.” It seemed that his bashing all those years ago had made an impression on Helen; Alan the PolySci major was gone, replaced by ultra-conservative Alan Murrow who lacked compassion to love his childhood friend and only sister. In a tell-all interview with Barbara Walters, Helen Baxter said that Alan Murrow “[was] no longer the man I married.” This only enraged Alan even more, and (in his mind) proved that he was right.

On Christmas Eve of 2000, Susan Murrow talked to her son one last time to tell him that his sister was dying of AIDS--contracted not by her lesbianism but by her experimentation with drugs in the 80s--and requested to see her brother one last time. Alan told his mother that he had no sister and hung up on her. Rebecca Lee Murrow died on January 10th, 2001 without ever seeing her brother.

It was during this time that Alan developed his later infamous taste for Xanax. Prescribed by a personal therapist to help combat his extreme depression, Alan discovered the mellow high he could get. It was like all his troubles over the past years melted away and he was, for the first time in decades, relaxed.

In March 2001, Murrow (still a popular figure in many ultra-conservative circles) was contacted by Fox News to do a pundit show during primetime. The Right Perspective with Alan Murrow premiered at 8:30 on June 1st, 2001, right after The O’Reilly Factor. It opened to high (for cable news) ratings and became Murrow’s pulpit against all the sin he saw in the world. The 9-11 attacks changed his vocabulary slightly (“pinko commie” became “terrorist lover” and more) and added fodder in the fire. Once again, ultra-conservative pundit Murrow was on the rise; however, like all of Murrow’s previous enterprises, it was destined to fail.

In January 2006, the New York Times revealed that Murrow had been buying Xanax, long after his supposed prescriptions ran out. That one report opened the floodgates for scandal—an intern claimed that Murrow sexually assaulted her before a show, and there were rumors of cheating on his taxes. In addition, a well-known political comedian famously said on his extremely popular primetime show that The Right Perspective was “bad for America.” His show’s popularity took a nosedive, and about three months before he arrived on the island Fox News canceled the show.

Alan was devastated once again. He tried to finish writing his third book, What’s Right For America, but his regular publisher didn’t want to associate themselves with all the negative press. It was too soon for a new Murrow book; perhaps in a few months, when the controversy was lowered just enough so that the public was curious.

It is now modern day. Alan has been slowly rebuilding his life: he has just begun hosting an XM radio show; his third book has finally been accepted by a publisher; he's finally getting back in the dating scene.

Of course, at this point his world goes to various different hells of my design.





 
 
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