Next time you think the mainstream media are winning, just remember that Sean is out there making sure that doesn't happen.

Hannity knows how to pick his battles – but don't make the mistake of thinking he doesn't know how to fight. The Fox News Channel's conservative powerhouse is not to be trifled with – ideologically or physically.

I once witnessed it firsthand. Few know the story about Sean and several friends (Geraldo Rivera, Ainsley Earhardt, and my old boss Laura Ingraham) being confronted by a group of Antifa-type thugs after attending a Trump inaugural event at the Warner Theater in Washington, D.C.

Few people know that Sean has been trained in Krav Maga, the self-defense technique pioneered by the Israeli military. He also works out at an MMA gym almost daily.

Hannity doesn't back down. Hannity is Irish. Hannity doesn't like left-wing bullies.

The Antifa thugs almost found out just how much he doesn't like them. But Sean had the presence of mind not to take the bait in what would have inevitably become a mainstream media pounding: "Conservative commentator Sean Hannity attacks peaceful protesters!"

Those peaceful protesters, by the way, were throwing trash and rocks at us – and likely had their phones ready to film a confrontation they started but that would have been edited to make them appear to be the victims.

Instead, Sean made sure his friends were safe first; he basically put Geraldo (who had a foot injury of some kind) into an SUV. I got Ingraham safely into the car without incident.

The Antifa thugs desperately needed a knuckle sandwich, but instead, Hannity chose to combat them on the field of ideas.

He does that every afternoon and night from the perch of his highly successful radio and TV shows. On those fields of battle, he's even more dangerous as an adversary – which explains the ferocity of the fire directed his way almost daily by his anti-Trump critics.

Several prominent conservative commentators – including Hannity and Rush Limbaugh as well as Laura Ingraham – have been targeted by the left with smear campaigns and financial warfare, most notably the recent attempts to strong-arm their advertisers into abandoning their shows via boycotts and other flanking actions. These are necessary maneuvers because the left has been unable to defeat conservative ideas.

Nor have they been able to shout down the pugnacious host – whose working-class background taught him never to give in to bullies.

It's a lesson he learned from Ronald Reagan – and one that helped Trump win the presidency. Both men also won because they didn't forget the working-class men and women of America whom the establishment long ago abandoned.

Hannity has been particularly effective at countering the barrage of media bias, phony Russian collusion hysteria, and miscarriages of justice taking place since Donald Trump became president. It's all part of a concerted effort to undo the 2016 election, which Trump unforgivably won in a fair fight.

That rubs Sean the wrong way. For him, this is personal as well as political.

Everyone should thank Hannity for manning the ramparts – and defending not just this president, but moral sanity against what has become a kind of demented witch hunt.

Sean dares to ask: Where's the collusion? The Comey-Mueller jihad is long on innuendo and short on facts. He has been insisting that the president – along with everyone else – has a right to equal protection of the laws.

Even Hillary has that right – though in her case, the laws have applied almost not at all.

For such effrontery, the attacks on Hannity have been as vicious as they have been relentless.

The other side knows that Sean is one of perhaps a dozen – maybe fewer – critical voices on the right with the will and the firepower to win. There are also his personal ties to the president – very much like the personal relationship between Mark Twain and Ulysses Grant – for which he has been singled out for special abuse.

Most of all, Sean isn't a screamer, as so many on the left are. He doesn't accuse his opponents of "racism" or "sexism" or any of the other "isms" used to stifle debate. Instead, he presents facts, logic, and moral principles, refusing to abandon any of them.

For example, he recently pointed out the fact that "equal treatment under the law is dead" – in reference to the Torquemada-esque persecution of Paul Manafort and Michael Cohen for anything that could be made to stick, in the hope that perhaps some of it might stick to the president. He contrasted that with the nearly narcoleptic treatment given the felonious former first lady and secretary of state, Hillary Clinton – who admitted to actions that could have landed her in a federal prison.

Hannity's consistent articulation of the principles at stake makes him extremely dangerous to those on the left – whose only principle seems to be the getting and keeping of power, by whatever means necessary.

What they want is a milksop, someone pliable. A go-along, get-along kind of guy. The kind of guy who cares more about making friends and making money – and not offending – than being right.

Sean Hannity is not one of those guys. It's MMA time, baby.

A.J. Rice is the CEO of Publius PR. In his media career he has produced or promoted Laura Ingraham, Judge Jeanine Pirro, Monica Crowley, Melissa Francis, George P. Bush, Dr. Herb London, Dr. Tevi Troy, Coach Howard Schnellenberger, and many others. Find out more at publiuspr.com.

Image: Gage Skidmore via Flickr.