Watch: Fox News defends CNN’s reporting, criticizes Trump’s treatment of Jim Acosta

On Wednesday, President-elect Donald Trump refused to take questions from CNN's Jim Acosta because of a CNN news report on an unverified leaked dossier claiming to have damaging personal information about Trump. Trump further angrily denounced the entire CNN network as "terrible" and "fake news" during the exchange. The exchange caused a divide throughout the country between those who believed a president should be allowed to blacklist certain media outlets, and those who believed reporters should have the right to ask a president questions without being dismissed or insulted.

Many conservative observers have specifically defended Trump on the grounds that he was merely treating CNN in the same manner that President Obama has long treated Fox News. Fox News host Shepard Smith took a few moments later that evening to express the position that Fox News takes on the matter.

Smith categorically stated, "Though we at Fox News cannot confirm CNN's report, it is our observation that its correspondents followed journalist standards, and that neither they nor any other journalist should be subjected to belittling and delegitimizing by the president-elect of the United States."

Smith's position was vastly different than that of Fox Business anchor Neil Cavuto, who lashed out at CNN on Thursday, expressing that CNN is now experiencing what Fox News felt for a number of years.

"They say payback’s a b***h. 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 a**," Cavuto said.

Though Obama has historically singled out Fox News as being inferior to other news outlets, Trump himself has his own history of negative comments about the organization.

During the Republican primary debates in 2016, Trump had a very public feud with then Fox News host Megyn Kelly for asking what he considered to be an unfair question, at one point even going so far as to call her a "bimbo."

He also refused to appear in a Fox News Republican primary debate in Iowa because the network refused to replace Megyn Kelly as a moderator, and further stated that the whole network had been "very unfair" to him.