You hit the nail on the head: fragility comes from not wanting to share or lose power when one is on the top of the institutional hierarchy. Or, when one is STRIVING TO reach the top of that hierarchy under America's current hegemonic structure. That's why their reactions are so over-the-top and criminal (although I'd never even heard about News Break before reading your article today; so I'll make a mental note to steer clear of it).

The archetype you describe...they don't want to engage in rational, thought-provoking debate. They want to dictate the entire discussion, in a top-down manner.

Of course, many people now extrapolate from the original sociological meaning of "fragility," and they proceed to apply it to whenever somebody is defending themselves against a character assassination or an ad hominem attack. But that's probably an entirely separate discussion that could be had.