CNN’s Tapper reminds former Bush spox that he led crusade against Obama’s treatment of Fox News

After President-elect Donald Trump made news by shouting down CNN reporter Jim Acosta during his Wednesday press conference, many conservative commentators expressed glee that the network was now being treated by Trump in the same manner that President Barack Obama has always treated Fox News. Fox host Neil Cavuto even explicitly made the point on air Thursday night.

Former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer also joined the pile-on against CNN on Twitter:

The same media that sat silent when Pres. Obama attacked FOX News now calls for unity. They should have defended FOX https://t.co/09ZYzr7YdA

— Ari Fleischer (@AriFleischer) January 13, 2017

CNN anchor Jake Tapper responded to Fleischer by pointing out that he stood up for Fox News on three separate occasions when Obama tried to sideline or otherwise mistreat Fox News reporters:

@AriFleischer we did https://t.co/enGBhX6hsn

— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) January 13, 2017

@AriFleischer we did https://t.co/13lMFmH9Uz

— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) January 13, 2017

@AriFleischer we did https://t.co/wFid6J6IC8

— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) January 13, 2017

The first incident pointed out by Tapper concerned an incident in 2009 when the Obama administration attempted to shuffle Fox News out of the rotating press pool and otherwise limit access to key administration officials who were offered up for interviews to other news outlets. Tapper, who was White House correspondent for ABC at the time, aggressively grilled then-press secretary Robert Gibbs during a White House press conference about the decision. As noted by Mediaite at the time of the incident, CNN’s Anderson Cooper called the administration's move “Nixonian.”

The second concerned the Obama administration’s 2013 decision to open a criminal investigation of Fox News reporter James Rosen, which Tapper blasted as setting a terrible precedent, and pointed out that even the liberal New York Times had harshly criticized Obama for the move.

The third concerned the 2016 revelation that the Obama state department had secretly deleted a portion of a 2013 press briefing that contained a question from a Fox News reporter — again, James Rosen. Tapper openly criticized the Obama administration’s actions, saying explicitly that they should “outrage every American.”

Not all Fox News hosts have joined the pile-on against CNN, however. Fox News’ Shepard Smith stated Wednesday that the opinion of Fox News brass was that Fox News reporting was “within standard journalistic practices” and further that Fox News did not approve of any reporter being “belittled” by the president-elect.