'It really stinks': Fox News host Bret Baier gripes about colleagues texting Mark Meadows on Jan 6.

Fox News anchor Bret Baier complained on Sunday after three of his colleagues were caught sending text messages to then-White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows on Jan. 6.

During an interview with Fox News host Howard Kurtz, Baier reflected on the news that hosts Laura Ingraham, Brian Kilmeade and Sean Hannity had begged Meadows to have President Donald Trump call off the Capitol rioters.

Critics of Fox News have pointed out that the same hosts downplayed the Capitol attack on the air.

"Wouldn't the public want these hosts who have interviewed Trump many times, who are mostly sympathetic to Donald Trump, to do whatever they could to get him to halt the violence?" Kurtz asked Baier.

"Yes," Baier agreed. "There was a lot of stir-up that day [last week] that we hadn't been covering [the text messages] but we did on-air."

"The big thing was what critics said was the hypocrisy of what [the hosts] were saying privately on texts and what they were saying publicly on their shows," he continued. "I called all three of them directly and said, what do you say about this? And they said we stand by everything we've said publicly and privately and we reported that."

Baier added: "Sometimes we have to report on things that are in the news that are us and it really stinks. Because I'm trying to never be the news and trying to report and cover things fairly. Sometimes it has to be us."

"It can be uncomfortable being the story," Kurtz remarked.

Watch the video below from Fox News.