Fox News Claims ABC’s V is an Attack on Barack Obama

Last updated on August 10th, 2014 at 05:06 pm

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Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly, Glenn Beck, and Sean Hannity have all given rousing endorsements to ABC’s revival of the show V. All three of the FNC personalities claim that the show is a political statement against Obama and healthcare reform. Ironically enough, all three also made their claims on the exact same day. I smell a talking point here.

Here is the video of Hannity:

On his Wednesday FNC program, Hannity said, “And a new ABC drama seems to be taking aim at Obama-mania. That’s right, you heard me right. The show is called V, and it focuses on a telegenic leader who arrives from outer space offering a message of hope and compromise and promising, you guessed it, universal health care. Sound familiar? Oh, and the media? They love this new leader. Now, V premiered last night. Let’s take a look at a few clips…You know, I think this is one TV show that I can actually get behind.”

Interestingly, on the same day that Hannity talked about V Beck’s newsletter said, “Glenn has long talked about the progressives and their goal of transforming the country — transforming it into something reminiscent of a Karl Marx daydream. There is a new TV show on called ‘V’ on ABC that debuted last night which seems to be based exactly on what Glenn has been saying about progressives for the last couple of years. Watch and decide for yourself … but the similarities are eerie.”

Ironically enough, O’Reilly also talked about V on the same day that Beck and Hannity did. O’Reilly said, “I’ve got to watch that show. It’s pretty apparent the scriptwriters are taking some shots at President Obama.” What all three of them left out was that V and the themes in its debut were also present in the original run of the show in the 1980s. The original miniseries ran in 1983, when Ronald Reagan was president.

Just as the original series was not a political commentary against Ronald Reagan, the 2009 series is not speaking out against George W. Bush. In fact, the series was in development before Obama had even won the presidency. The pilot script was kicking around for more than a year before the show went into production, so Beck, Hannity, and Bill-O are wrong. 100% wrong.

The themes that the talking heads on Fox News claim to be seeing are nothing more than people watching a program and seeing what they want to see. There is no evidence that there any intentional political themes in V. It is work of science fiction that as it progress will touch on many of the traditional themes of genre. The Fox News guys are simply seeing things that aren’t there.

H/T: Media Matters

Jason Easley

Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.

Awards and  Professional Memberships

Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association