Via Mediaite, let me say upfront that a kung fu movie in which Hannity and Acosta teamed up to take on all comers would be unbelievably bad-ass.

It’s possible too. I don’t know about Jimbo but Hannity has the moves to pull it off.

First, though, as in any good kung fu movie, they must test their skills with the ultimate challenge — fighting each other.

Hannity Says CNN's Acosta Deserves Heckling for His 'Abusively Biased Treatment of the President' https://t.co/l0VY3zWzgp pic.twitter.com/gsFh0cRMDZ

— Mediaite (@Mediaite) August 1, 2018

Hannity is a propagandist for profit, peddling lies every night. He says he’s just a talk show host, not a journalist. But he’s injecting poison into the nation’s political bloodstream warping public attitudes about the press. I’m confident in the long run the truth will prevail.

— Jim Acosta (@Acosta) August 2, 2018

https://twitter.com/seanhannity/status/1024848908277768192

Come to think of it, maybe fighting Acosta wouldn’t be the ultimate challenge:

Hey @seanhannity – stop playing whiffle ball with the WH’s hand picked guests and climb in the hardball box with some guests that might actually punch back. Taking shots at @cnn and @Acosta proves nothing. Let’s go big boy – time to prove you are not a …. #Basta https://t.co/1Xw42iyVDM

— Michael Avenatti (@MichaelAvenatti) August 2, 2018

Kidding aside, it’s good of Hannity to say this:

“Let me say this clearly and loudly. I want every journalist in this country, everyone, I don’t care who you work for, to be safe. And I will tell you right now, I will be the first person to come to your defense if I’m there and anyone ever dares lay a hand on you. If I was standing there, if I see it happen, I will be the first person to jump in and fight on your behalf. Physical violence is never acceptable to me, nor is it acceptable to the conservatives I know and respect. And let me also be clear, if you are a conservative, and by the way, you ever threaten anyone, you are not a friend of mine, you are not a friend of this program and by the way — or the conservative movement of which I’m just a small part of.”

It’s smart of him too. Critics will point their fingers directly at him if and when someone does take a swing at Acosta or some other media enemy of MAGA Nation, accusing him of “whipping up a frenzy” or whatever. He’s going to throw this clip right back at them. Not that that will stop those critics:

The reality of hyperpartisanship in 2018 is that few tears would be shed by either side if a media figure from across the aisle got socked in the jaw for his political heresies. How many liberals who wrung their hands over Acosta’s reception at Trump’s rally cared about Shannon Bream being hounded away from the Supreme Court building by a lefty crowd after Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination was announced? Bream is as genial and low-key as Fox anchors get, too. Imagine the reaction on the left if it was Tucker Carlson or Hannity himself who’d been chased from the public square. Darcy’s point about Gianforte and Jacobs is well taken too, though: How many Republicans cared about a candidate manhandling a member of the hated press?

The typical reaction on either side to a reporter getting assaulted will go like this. Step one: The perfunctory, ass-covering “I don’t condone violence but…” introduction. Step two: Eight to 10 paragraphs about why the victim had it coming. And if he didn’t personally have it coming, the network he works for had it coming or the politicians/party he’s aligned with had it coming and so he had it coming by extension for picking crappy allies. It’s easy to protect yourself by condemning violence after it happens, when you have to. It’s better to do it when you don’t, as Hannity does here.