How is Fox News supposed to run a conservative news channel, if the Republican frontrunner declares that he’s not going to appear on the network anymore?

Donald Trump tweeted this message on Wednesday:

A representative for Fox News gave this statement to Business Insider, saying that they were the ones who canceled Trump’s appearances — because of his awful behavior:

At 11:45am today, we canceled Donald Trump’s scheduled appearance on “The O’Reilly Factor” on Thursday, which resulted in Mr. Trump’s subsequent tweet about his “boycott” of FOX News. The press predictably jumped to cover his tweet, creating yet another distraction from any real issues that Mr. Trump might be questioned about. When coverage doesn’t go his way, he engages in personal attacks on our anchors and hosts, which has grown stale and tiresome. He doesn’t seem to grasp that candidates telling journalists what to ask is not how the media works in this country.

In response the Trump campaign put out this press release, slamming Fox News for mistreating the top Republican candidate who has been netting the network such tremendous ratings:

Mr. Trump stands by his statement made earlier today. As a candidate for President of the United States and the definitive front runner in every poll, both nationally and state wide, including the just released poll in the state of Florida, Mr. Trump expects to be treated fairly. All you have to do is look at the tremendous ratings last night from the Late Show with Stephen Colbert, where Mr. Trump was the guest, or the ratings from both debates, to fully understand the facts.

The Donald has been back to tweeting against Megyn Kelly, his Fox News nemesis whom he previously remarked had “blood coming out of her eyes. Blood coming out of her — wherever.” Trump’s new complaint regarding Kelly is that there’s a double standard on sexism:

Note: Fox News has said that Megyn Kelly’s previous vacation, which Trump has teased at before, was indeed regularly scheduled. It may be that Trump was set off by this segment Tuesday night from Kelly. In an interview with Bobby Jindal, she asked about Scott Walker’s withdrawal from the race, and his declaration that other candidates should do likewise in order to unite against “the current frontrunner” Trump. She essentially asked the low-polling Jindal, who has been particularly loud in his criticisms of Trump, whether he would drop out too. That discussion comes in the second half of the interview below.

Photo: U.S. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks on the USS Iowa in San Pedro, Los Angeles, California, United States September 15, 2015. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson