Merry (War On) Christmas From A World Without Rupert Murdoch

The classic film, “It’s A Wonderful Life,” has become a tradition in the holiday season. And despite the attempts by Fox News to wage a divisive and exclusionary war that pits Americans against one another for merely offering different versions of the season’s greetings, the movie’s message continues to uplift each new generation of viewers.

Wonderful Life

But the film was not always so well received. In fact, during the “Red Scare” in the late 1940’s the notorious anti-communist persecution conducted by that era’s Tea Party Congress had labeled the film as commie propaganda. A 1947 FBI memorandum alleged that

“…the film represented a rather obvious attempt to discredit bankers by casting Lionel Barrymore as a ‘scrooge-type’ so that he would be the most hated man in the picture. This, according to these sources, is a common trick used by Communists.”

It seems like satire now, but they were deadly serious (unlike Jimmy Kimmel’s Mr. Potter and the Commies of Bedford Falls). What these pathetically inept film reviewers apparently failed to notice was that the film’s hero, George Bailey, was also a banker (as head of Bailey Bros. Building and Loan) – just not a greedy, insensitive, and criminally corrupt one like the villainous Mr. Potter. And the lesson he learned in the course of the story was that he had made a difference in the lives of those he touched, and that they reciprocated in kind.

The heartwarming notion that the world would be worse off without the likes of George Bailey still makes eyes moist and brings families together in appreciation of their good fortune. However, in a re-telling of the “Wonderful Life” by comedians Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie, the fate is very different for the arch-conservative media baron, Rupert Murdoch. So, in what is becoming a Christmas tradition for News Corpse, here is Fry & Laurie’s profound and hilarious production of “It’s A Soaraway Life,” which looks at what the world would be like if Rupert Murdoch had never been born.

How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.
Available now at Amazon.

Advertisement: