Fox News has long called itself "fair and balanced," but detractors have often snickered at that, claiming the network is too much in the tank for conservative politicians and the Republican Party. In a surprise piece on Friday, Washington Post writer Callum Borchers said Fox is being "very tough" with Republican contenders. 

Borchers pointed to Trump appearing on Fox News with Bill O'Reilly. When O'Reilly brought up Trump's complaints about CNN, Trump went after Fox.

But Trump didn’t want to gripe about CNN anymore. He wanted to knock Fox, instead.

O’REILLY: Do you think CNN dislikes you -- the news organization itself?

TRUMP: Well, honestly, I think I get better press from CNN than I do Fox, Bill, if you want to know the truth.

O’REILLY: Well, that’s because we’re the toughest network.

Laugh all you want, Fox haters, but O’Reilly might be right — at least as far as the 2016 Republican presidential primary goes.

You’d have to be in a Rumpelstiltskin-esque slumber not to know that Trump has been carping about Fox coverage for months now. The thing that really set him off was a debate question in August from Fox News host Megyn Kelly, who confronted him about his propensity for ad hominem attacks on women. That, of course, led Trump to remark the next day that Kelly had “blood coming out of her wherever” — a perfect confirmation of her question’s premise — and Trump has continued to blast Kelly and the network ever since.

Trump refused to answer O'Reilly's question on who the billionaire sees as his biggest competition. He sparred with O'Reilly over whether Fox was too tough on Trump before the pair wished each other a Merry Christmas at the end of the interview.