The powers that be at CNN were in full outrage mode yesterday after Republican Sen. Martha McSally called Manu Raju, one of their congressional correspondents, a “liberal hack,” and refused to answer his questions.

After the incident, much of the minimal airtime left over from trashing Donald Trump all day was expended in defense of Raju and the network, which they clearly feel, has been unfairly besmirched. I’ve got two words for them: toughen up.

A statement from their PR department said, “It is extremely unbecoming for a U.S. Senator to sink to this level and treat a member of the press this way for simply doing his job.” Oh no, not unbecoming. What is it when Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez calls Fox News’ Tucker Carlson a “white supremacist sympathizer?” Is that unbecoming or is that speaking truth to power?

Speaking of Fox News, or as your anchors like to refer to it, “a different network,” usually with a smug smirk of superiority and some quip about how CNN only trades in facts, what should we make of your attacks on that network? Your media critic Brian Stelter has an HBO special coming out called, “After Truth: Disinformation and the Cost of Fake News.” Whoa, whoa, whoa. Fake news? I thought that was dangerous rhetoric that threatens the republic. How dare you undermine the institution of the news media?

As a guy who grew up in Philly I’d like to inform CNN that you don’t get to come to the playground, smack everyone around and then run to the teacher when they hit you back. So here are a few jabs for you purveyors of pure, unbiased truth. Lets run down the list of people you told viewers are likely to take down Trump over the past few years. James Comey, Robert Mueller, Michael Cohen, Michael Flynn, Michael Avenatti, the whistleblower, the SDNY, Andrew McCabe, Stormy Daniels, and now John Bolton and Lev Parnas.

The mathematical probability of being that wrong, that often while acting in good faith falls somewhere between zero and zero. Do they hate their viewers? It’s like they are in an abusive relationship with them where they prey on their emotions, contently promising a better, Trump-free tomorrow, constantly disappointing that expectation.

But you know what the real problem is? It’s that these heroes actually believe their own nonsense. They bash the bias of the conservative media but at least we own it, it’s why it’s called conservative media. CNN’s ridiculous claims of objectivity and impartiality, all while ridiculing the right at every turn borders on mental illness. Remove the chryon from thy own eye.

Look, Manu Raju seems like a nice fellow, and nobody likes to get called mean things, but if CNN can’t understand why GOP lawmakers don’t want to stop and chat with people whose sole purpose is to make them look bad, then it needs a reality check. The network sees itself as a font of unvarnished truth, the Oracle of Atlanta, but it’s really a propaganda machine for Democrats and Never Trumpers.

CNN likes to dish it out. Don Lemon and Chris Cuomo love to look stunned at conservative media’s mendacious lies, but when they get called out for being the biased outlet they obviously are, they cry foul and hide behind the cloak of sacred journalism. That’s not how it works.

Martha McSally did everyone a huge favor by calling these clowns out. The visceral hypocrisy of CNN clutching their pearls when Trump attacks the news media while they themselves throw haymakers at conservatives and accuse them of duping the American people needs to be exposed, and it needs to be exposed often.

For decades the left has demonized Fox News and other right wing outlets, the response from the conservative movement in the past has been to say, “come on guys, we’re not that bad.” Well that time is over. There is a new conservative movement and this one doesn’t play that game, this one is ready to punch back just as the good senator from Arizona did Thursday afternoon.