First things first: The coverage of Fox News vis-a-vis Donald Trump defies facile summaries, as we’ve written before.

Now for the juicuer part of this Cruz outburst, or at least the reaction to it: Fox News host Greta Van Susteren, on her highly regarded Gretawire blog, has penned a typically pointed and highly polished response to Cruz’s assertion about the “Donald Trump Network.” As in, take a hike, Cruz! Check it out:

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Almost every single day (including weekends) since at least last December when he last appeared on ON THE RECORD at 7p, the staff of ON THE RECORD at 7p has contacted the Cruz campaign offering Senator Ted Cruz live interviews, taped interviews or town halls. We even told his campaign on dozens occasions that they could pick the date and location for the town halls. He did not take us up on our offers. The staff claimed he was unavailable.

Host Van Susteren herself has issued these requests to the campaign, with much the same results. She concludes, with a bit of repetition, for emphasis: “That’s the whole story – Senator Cruz has had equal opportunity to appear at 7pm ON THE RECORD but has declined. Period. That’s the whole story.” (Italics are Van Susteren’s.)

This very specific, particular complaint about the Cruz campaign has turned into a cable-news hat trick. To wit, in March, CNN host Anderson Cooper pressed Cruz at a town-hall event about why on earth the candidate had ever said nice things about Trump. The candidate then riffed: “The media was engaged in a love fest, giving Donald Trump $2 billion of free media. . . . How many hours of free media does CNN and Fox and every other station — you let him call in.” So Cooper roared back, “We’ve asked you for interviews pretty much every day, and you’ve declined every offer on my program.”

There’s an MSNBC example, too. In mid-April, host Thomas Roberts was chatting with Ken Cuccinelli, a former Virginia attorney general and a key Cruz ally in managing delegate efforts. “You guys in the journalistic community have given him a lot more air time than anybody else,” said Cuccinelli to Roberts about the copious coverage of Trump. Roberts couldn’t let that one pass: “Ken, I’m gonna push back. We’ve invited Ted Cruz on multiple times, I’ve reached out to Alice Stewart with the campaign all the time . . . there’s an open invitation to the senator. And we have a town hall with Chuck Todd tomorrow night with Sen. Cruz,” said Roberts.