Yesterday, a former Trump campaign official named Justin Caporale mocked one of Jim Acosta’s tweets by responding with “Dear diary….”

https://twitter.com/justincap_/status/1053113587080851456

Acosta responded with two words of his own, sending this direct message to Caporale:

https://twitter.com/justincap_/status/1053130150102134785

https://twitter.com/justincap_/status/1053142370370363392

https://twitter.com/justincap_/status/1053143225257615360

A couple of hours later Acosta did offer an apology:

Hey buddy I thought you were an old friend from the campaign days. I’m so sorry. Hope I didn’t offend you. Have a good night and take care. https://t.co/4u9fj1BNPI

— Jim Acosta (@Acosta) October 19, 2018

You can make your own judgment about the sincerity of that. If Acosta was just giving his old pal a hard time why block him? That sounds more like someone who was genuinely upset.

If you’ve been paying attention to the Jim Acosta show, you know that his gimmick is to show up at every press availability and start yelling questions at the president a la Sam Donaldson. Sometimes he demands the president answer his question when he hasn’t been called on and sometimes he shouts questions for the camera when the president can’t possibly hear him. To call it grandstanding hardly does the Acosta show justice. That’s why people have taken to mocking Acosta with the “Dear diary” tag.

But there’s another angle to this as well. Acosta has been at the forefront of people claiming that Trump’s mockery of journalists was going to result in violence. After the mass shooting at the Capital Gazette newspaper this summer, Acosta went on air and noted that Trump was being asked questions about whether his criticism of the press had gone too far. In other words, he was hinting, without evidence, that maybe Trump’s rhetoric was responsible.

When covering Trump rallies for CNN he has said he worries Trump is encouraging violence. Acosta did the same thing again yesterday. After Trump said he approved of a candidate who had bodyslammed a reporter (and let me say I agree this was a terrifically stupid comment on Trump’s part), Acosta began suggesting this may “plants seeds of violence in his own supporters.” It’s not enough for Acosta to say the President is wrong, he is always eager to connect his statements to violence.

The irony here is that the same network that has taken a firm stand against referring to Democratic protesters as mobs, even when they’re harassing Senators in private restaurants or punching GOP representatives and manhandling members of their staff, hasn’t had a problem with Acosta suggesting repeatedly that Trump is inciting his rally attendees to mob-like violence. Acosta may not be using the M-word but that’s clearly the picture he has been trying to paint for months.