On the June 12 edition of Hannity, media reporter Joe Concha of The Hill newspaper insisted the liberal networks are pushing impeachment because it would be good for their anemic ratings, and expressed amazement NBC is using Rachel Maddow as a debate moderator when four years ago, she hugged Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton after the debate ended. Hannity called her "Roswell Rachel Maddow, the number one conspiracy theorist in the country."
Concha noted a new poll shows only 33 percent of Americans want the Democrats to launch impeachment hearings against President Trump.
SEAN HANNITY: Joe, from the media's standpoint, they're begging Democrats do this. There's pressure, they want it so bad. They don't care what happens to the Democrats?
JOE CONCHA, THE HILL: Nor are they aligned with the American people, Sean. Quinnipiac just had a poll out today. One-third of Americans support impeachment, including just 35 percent of independents, that's the whole ball game as we know.
But impeachment -- think of it this way. Remember the Kavanaugh hearings and what that did from a ratings perspective across the board. It would be like a steroid shot for these networks that are struggling right now post-Mueller report, because they're not trusted and there's fatigue around these sort of things.
CNN should be panicking about its new ratings lows, and MSNBC is shifting around its executives because NBC News president Andy Lack isn't happy with the ratings dip after the Mueller Report popped their collusion bubble.
They also discussed how Maddow can be considered as a debate moderator. She's already declared everyone in the Democrat field is qualified to be president. They're all interesting and competent. They're all far better than Trump. She can't possibly be preparing tough questions like Chris Wallace would for Republicans.
CONCHA: And, again, in terms of Rachel Maddow who you mentioned earlier, it's why people like me, objective people, look at her moderating a debate and saying, "Wait a minute that that can't happen", because in 2016 she moderated a debate and actually went up on stage on national television and hugged Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton on stage.
Picture Shannon Bream or Martha MacCallum doing that to a Republican candidate, the apocalypse would look like nothing compared what the reaction would be.
HANNITY: I let them forge new ground. I think me, Rush and Levin can host a debate, we'd do a great job. I think we'd be a great team.
CONCHA: That would be interesting to watch.
Professor Alan Dershowitz was also interviewed in the segment and added "We need to get back to Walter Cronkite type journalism where people can trust what they hear in the media. Today that's just not the case." But we can also make a case that Cronkite wasn't always the paragon of objectivity we imagine today.
