Abstract
This essay explores the usefulness of fantasy theme analysis for the study of live coverage of breaking news events by making a critical analysis of the televised reports of the hostage release and the Reagan inaugural address of January 20, 1987. The critical analysis reveals similarities between rhetorical fantasies and televised news by comparing the subliminal impact of the enactment of the transfer of power and end of the crisis by the coverage of the inaugural and hostage release to the way Reagan's speechwriters used the fantasy type of restoration to meet the needs of a conservative political movement in the 1980s.