Journalists report increased threats and harassment at rallies as Trump declares war on 'the media'

“I’m not running against crooked Hillary, I’m running against the crooked media,” said Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump Saturday evening as a thunderstorm roared outside his rally in Fairfield, CT.

“That’s what I’m running against," he repeated, according to the Hill. "I’m not running against crooked Hillary.”

Reporters confined to the "press pen" -- a barricaded area usually at the center of each rally -- say that they are increasingly being insulted and harassed by crowd members as Trump sharpens his animus against a media that he believes is deliberately hamstringing his run for the White House.

On Saturday, he joked that his campaign should revoke the New York Times' press credentials over an article he deemed to be less than appropriately flattering.

NBC reporter Katy Tur wrote this week in Marie Claire that after Trump singled her out as a "bad reporter" and called her "Little Katie" at rallies, the Secret Service had to escort her to safety.

"(T)he crowd, feeding off Trump," she wrote, "seemed to turn on me like a large animal, angry and unchained."

On Saturday, Sopan Deb of CBS News tweeted, "Yeesh. About five separate instances of people coming up to press pen to tell us how much they hate us (or some variation.)"

NBC's Ali Vitali posted footage of rally-goers on Saturday staring into the press pen and flashing the "L" for "loser" sign.

Vitali also posted, "'LIARS.' A girl says to us. I cant help but crack a smile. 'Oh, you're laughing? Think it's funny?'"

On Friday, a Trump supporter in Florida rushed up to the press pen to raise his middle finger and call the assembled journalists "traitors" while repeatedly pointing to himself and shouting, "I am a patriot!"

In spite of his declaration of all-out war on the press, however, Trump took time during the rally to read whole sections of one New York Post article aloud because it spoke glowingly of his contributions to New York City real estate development.