It's rare for journalists to join forces. Usually they are too competitive, independent and stubborn for that. But President Donald Trump's unrelenting war against what he calls the "fake" news media is generating a new solidarity in the Fourth Estate. Instead of causing reporters and editors to knuckle under, Trump's attempts at intimidation are generating the biggest anti-Trump media backlash since he took office.

Trump prompted media outrage again Sunday when he re-tweeted a doctored video in which he body-slammed a man who had a CNN logo superimposed on his face. Trump was shown throwing the "CNN" figure to the floor outside a wrestling ring, jumping on his victim and repeatedly punching him. The 28-second video apparently was based on an actual incident from several years ago in which Trump orchestrated a moment of fury similar to the staged violence of professional wrestling. In the original moment, Trump apparently "attacked" Vince McMahon, head of a major wrestling organization, and pummeled him. (McMahon's wife Linda is now administrator of Trump's Small Business Administration.)

Trump's critics immediately expressed outrage and contempt, and some said the video incited violence against journalists. Trump defenders said the video was an attempt at being light-hearted and the media are showing they can't take criticism and only want to dole it out.

But the level of solidarity against Trump is reaching a new level. A spokeswoman for the Committee to Protect Journalists, a media advocacy group, said, "Targeting individual journalists or media outlets, on- or off-line, creates a chilling effect and fosters an environment where further harassment, or even physical attack, is deemed acceptable." Dean Baquet, executive editor of The New York Times, which has been regularly attacked by Trump, issued a statement that, "I think it is unseemly that the president would attack journalists for doing their jobs, and encourage such anger at the media." A spokesman for CNN, the cable network that is a frequent target of Trump tirades, said, "It is a sad day when the President of the United States encourages violence against reporters."

Presidents are never happy with their news coverage. I've seen this first-hand covering six presidents going back to 1986 – Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama and currently Donald Trump. But other presidents had a much better understanding and acceptance than Trump of the role in American society of journalism and the First Amendment's guarantee of freedom of the press.

These presidents knew that the relationship between the media and the president is adversarial, and the media are obliged to hold the president accountable. Meanwhile, the president and his aides are trying to make him look as good as possible.

Of course this generates tension. But the most effective presidents don't take the scrutiny as a personal affront as Trump does. Nor do they define every engagement with the media as a dire matter of winning and losing as Trump sees it. For his part, Trump says journalists are "the enemy" of the American people. This insults many in the Fourth Estate who see their role as educators trying to perform a public service.

The deep hostility was illustrated in Trump's recent dustup with the co-hosts of "Morning Joe" on MSNBC, Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough. They have criticized Trump and made fun of him, but he went ballistic and demeaned them in a very personal way when he called Scarborough a "psycho" and mocked Brzezinski as "low IQ crazy" and a woman who was "bleeding badly from a face-lift" when the duo met with Trump at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida around last New Year's Eve. This generated more media solidarity as one journalist after another lambasted Trump for being gross, puerile and, in his references to Brzezinski, misogynistic. A CNN spokesman blasted Trump and defended the MSNBC co-hosts. An MSNBC spokeswoman said in a news release, "It's a sad day for America when the president spends his time bullying, lying and spewing petty personal attacks instead of doing his job." More than three dozen Republicans and Democrats in Congress also criticized Trump for going too far.

But Trump escalated. During a speech in Washington Saturday to a gathering designed to honor military veterans and celebrate religious freedom, Trump said, "The fake media is trying to silence us. But we will not let them. Because the people know the truth. The fake media tried to stop us from going to the White House. But I'm president and they're not."

Resentment toward Trump has been building for a long time in the establishment media. "We're at a turning point [in] their relationship," Paul Levinson, a media studies professor at Fordham University, told NBC. Levinson said Trump's attacks will require a "more forceful and more explicit" response from news organizations in their own defense and a continuing effort to hold Trump to account for his policy reversals, failures and boorish, divisive behavior.

Media leaders appear to agree.