Fox News host skewers CNN after Trump takedown: 'They say payback's a b***h

Fox News host Neil Cavuto took CNN to task in an on-air commentary, mocking the cable network on the heels of a headline-grabbing press conference this week during which Republican President-elect Donald Trump called CNN "fake news."

Cavuto's segment Thursday began with video of the press conference featuring CNN senior White House reporter Jim Acosta insisting Trump give him a question — and Trump refusing: “Your organization is terrible. ... I’m not going to give you a question. You are fake news.”

Then Cavuto pounced.

"Ouch! How's all that going down, CNN?" he asked. "How does it feel to be dismissed, or worse, ignored? How does it feel when your feelings are hurt? When your reporters are singled out? And you're treated unfairly and unkindly? Even rudely? What is it like not to be liked? It's not really fun, is it?"

It is not fun when you think you're doing your job, and the guy you're covering thinks you're the piece of work. It's insulting, isn't it? Being called on the carpet by the next leader of the free world after years of giving the present one all but a free pass? You can't figure out suddenly not being in. It bugs you when someone questions whether you're fair, doesn't it? Or cuts you to your journalistic core, doesn't it? It matters now when it's about you, doesn't it? Not so much when it's about someone else.

Presidential pile-ons matter when you're the subject, not so much — actually scratch that, not at all — when let's say Fox is the subject.

With that, Cavuto's commentary cut to clips of President Barack Obama ridiculing Fox News during his years in office — then Cavuto returned.

"And everyone chuckled," he continued. "Take it from me, taking truth to power can be powerfully unsettling if that power sets its sights on you and attacks you and dismisses you and ignores you. It didn't matter so much when it wasn't about you before, CNN. Very different now that it's you being singled out, CNN. Doesn't seem very fair now, does it?"

Cavuto told CNN that it's now "experiencing what we have been living. Now you're the ones royally, uh, foxed. And the irony is I feel your pain." Then the host offered CNN a compliment of sorts, saying it's "better than BuzzFeed," presumably for not running with the contents of a salacious report about Trump when BuzzFeed did.

"But the buzz is you're getting fed to the wolves," Cavuto continued. "Isn't it obnoxious and unfair how some celebrate your plight? Kind of feels like the way you celebrated ours, doesn't it? They say payback's a bitch. If only you would take a moment to rewind the tape and see the shoe is on the other foot. Or am I confusing it with the one now kicking you in the ass?"

Cavuto concluded by saying that when Fox News was the target of Obama's rebukes, CNN's "silence was deafening. Very different now, isn't it? And I suspect — just suspect — not much fun. Is it?"