While the rest of us have been preoccupied with life, Fox News host and slightly-past-its-prime potato Sean Hannity has been publicly unraveling at a pace that matches (in fact, that uncannily matches) Donald Trump's own accelerating meltdowns. After a no-longer-remarkable incident in which Trump fans targeted CNN's Jim Acosta during his attempt to report from a Trump rally, Trump's devoted friend Sean took to his Fox News show to opine that, well, maybe the CNN reporter deserved it for not properly supporting Trump.
You might assume that a prominent public jackass like Sean Hannity would not be terribly eager to stoke widespread partisan hatred of television figures—and you would assume wrong. While Hannity has repeatedly noted that he totes a gun and knows himself some "street martial arts,” clearly indicating an interest in his own safety, he's been utterly indifferent to the safety of others. His bestest telephone pal Donald Trump has decided he doesn't like CNN because they ask mean questions, and so Sean here will make damn sure he lets his viewers know that it's perfectly fine to launch invective-peppered attacks on CNN reporters when you see them, and it's the reporters' own fault for asking questions in proximity to Dear Leader.
So yeah. Now Sean Hannity's in all out war with (checks notes) Jim Acosta, and Acosta wasn’t going to let Hannity’s segment targeting him go unanswered.
Eventually, a Trump-named reporter is going to be physically injured in one of these Trump-sponsored near-riots. During the campaign, Trump's rallies were a frequent source of violence and near-violence; a reporter on the Trump campaign trail had to be escorted from one rally by Secret Service agents after Trump singled her out to the crowd, part of a campaign pattern of Trump identifying individual press targets by name during his rallies and on his Twitter feed.
But this, too, is part of the Fox News design. A heavily-armed gunman was arrested on his way to the Tides Foundation after then-host Glenn Beck repeatedly attacked the liberal group during his conspiracy-laden rants; an abortion-providing Kansas doctor was shot dead outside his church after Bill O'Reilly demonized him in repeated show segments. The network is indifferent to violence stoked by their hosts, and Sean Hannity is unconcerned with attacks on reporters who are not of his personal ideological bent.
This is going to get worse before it gets better, and Sean Hannity will be a big reason why. Trump has been consistent in goading his supporters into believing any members of the press who bring up subjects unpleasant to him, personally, are “fake” news and therefore enemies of America. You can be very, very sure Sean Hannity will be goading his television viewers using the same rhetoric up to the very day that happens—and, most likely, continue to do so afterward as well.
Fox News could choose to separate themselves from Trump on the issue of whether the American press should be demonized as the "enemy of the people"; instead, they're sticking tight, and in fact encouraging Trump's attacks in an effort to boost their own ratings and damage competing networks. And that’s pretty deplorable.