Fox cancels Rocky-Hannity impeachment debate

When and if the brawl between Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson and conservative political radio talk show host Sean Hannity finally happens, it could be on Anderson's home turf.

In response to Hannity's on-air challenge for a debate in Salt Lake City, Anderson said, "I look forward to it."

The Salt Lake City mayor was scheduled to debate Hannity on Fox News Channel's "Hannity & Colmes" show Thursday evening. The subject was to be Anderson's recent calls for Congress to impeach President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney, but Fox canceled the segment.

"Hannity & Colmes" senior producer John Finley said the cancellation was a simple programming decision, made because the show had other topics to discuss instead.

"It was just one of those things," Finley said. "It was tentatively scheduled. There were just some other things that we ended up doing tonight."

But on Hannity's syndicated radio program, which airs in Utah on KSL-Newsradio, a caller asked Hannity whether the cancellation was the result of fear that Anderson's arguments were too strong.

Hannity responded by saying, "You tell the mayor of Salt Lake City this from Sean Hannity. ... I will fly out to Salt Lake City at my own expense for charity, and I will debate the merits of the war, impeachment and the liberal-conservative debate of our time."

He said the money raised by the debate — though he didn't say whether that would come through ticket sales, donations or some other means — would go to the favored charity of the debater judged by the audience to have won.

Anderson later told KSL's "Nightside" radio program he welcomes the opportunity.

"I was looking forward to being on tonight," he said. "This will be even better because I assume (it will be) a debate rather than a scream-fest on the Hannity show. ... I think it's fantastic that he will come out here. He's committed himself. We'll find a venue; we'll find a date that works."

And while the debate has the potential to be a verbal battle between two outspoken, love-him-or-hate-him voices on opposite ends of the political spectrum, Anderson said he sees the debate as a chance to come to agreement on "our common values."

Anderson criticized Hannity and the Fox producers for the cancellation, calling it "unprofessional."

"They bagged me tonight," he told Nightside, and he cited "some vague excuse that they couldn't fill the segment."