Shepard Smith Blasts Trump for 'Belittling' CNN Journalist

In a move that may surprise some Fox News viewers, out anchor Shepard Smith criticized President-elect Donald Trump for "belittling" a CNN journalist.

During the first press conference held since his win of the presidential election, Trump refused to field a question from Jim Acosta. Instead, he criticized the reporter and claimed his network promoted "fake news."

"You're attacking us, can you give us a question?" Acosta asked during the Wednesday press conference.

"Don't be rude. No, I'm not going to give you a question. You are fake news." Trump replied.

In response, Smith, who has been active in his criticism of Trump, defended CNN against Trump's claim that it is a "fake news" outlet in a Wednesday segment.

"CNN's exclusive reporting on the Russian matter was separate and distinctly different from the document dump executed by an online news property," stated Shepard, in a reference to BuzzFeed's controversial decision to publish the unverified report.

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

When Smith came out in October 2016, some viewers of the conservative network openly bashed the gay anchor through the Twitter hashtag #FireShep. These viewers read evidence of a long secret bias for progressive causes and the more pro-LGBT presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.

However, Smith is far from the only conservative talking head to attack Trump. Former Fox News personality Glenn Beck has been a vocal critic of the president-elect, comparing him to Hitler during the presidential campaign and asking liberal talk shot host Samantha Bee in December whether the freedom of the press would soon fall under attack.

CNN also released a statement in response to Trump's claims of false reporting.

"CNN's decision to publish carefully sourced reporting about the operations of our government is vastly different than Buzzfeed's decision to publish unsubstantiated memos," the network wrote. "The Trump team knows this. They are using Buzzfeed's decision to deflect from CNN's reporting, which has been matched by the other major news organizations."

Watch Smith deliver his remarks below.