The relentlessly negative coverage of Donald Trump has been repeatedly documented by the Media Research Center. Everything that Trump does is wrong. So it’s always helpful to remember that, according to most journalists, nearly everything Barack Obama did was wonderful and “amazing,” to quote MSNBC. It was 11 years ago this week that the network’s hosts absolutely gushed over the Democrat’s ability to... kill a fly.
Following his interview with Obama, Harwood on June 16, 2009 swooned over the then-President’s fly-killing skills, comparing it to Clint Eastwood in Dirty Harry. Here’s some of his excited conversation with then-MSNBC host David Shuster:
CORRESPONDENT JOHN HARWOOD: He had this fly that was persistently buzzing around him. He swatted his hand and he said, "I got the sucker." He threw it onto the ground. It was a, you know, Dirty Harry "Make my day’ moment." ...
MSNBC ANCHOR DAVID SHUSTER: Amazing! An amazing interview. It never fails — great weather, rainbows, incredible speeches and three point baskets. A fly and he nails it. Unbelievable. Unbelievable.
Harwood could barely contain himself. He raved, “At the end of the interview, David, he picked up a napkin off the table and said ‘I clean up after myself’ and he picked up the fly off the carpet.” If the Dirty Harry comparison wasn’t enough, then-co-anchor Tamron Hall ended the segment with another gushing movie reference, citing The Karate Kid: “Mr. Miyagi, just snapped it right up. Look at that – look at that intense look.”
This is a tad different than comparing Trump to a Hitler-esque dictator who could get everyone killed, huh?
For more examples from our weekly flashback series, which we call NewsBusters Time Machine, go here.
