Retired Col. Ralph Peters, a military analyst for Fox News, resigned his position and wrote a note excoriating the network as a “propaganda machine.”
“Over my decade at Fox, I was long proud of the association,” Peters wrote in an email that was distributed to colleagues at Fox News, and first reported by BuzzFeed News. “Now I am ashamed.”
Fox said in a statement that the network did not want attributed to a specific spokesperson that Peters was entitled to his opinion, “despite the fact that he’s choosing to use it as a weapon in order to get attention.” Fox said it was proud of its opinion programming and prime-time hosts.
Peters said he believed Fox had “degenerated from providing a legitimate and much-needed outlet for conservative voices to a mere propaganda machine for a destructive and ethically ruinous administration.”
He criticized prime-time hosts for “profoundly dishonest assaults” on the FBI, the Justice Department, the courts, the intelligence community and special counsel Robert Mueller, who is conducting an investigation into the Trump administration’s dealings with Russia. He accused the network of “scaremongering” with lurid warnings of deep-state machinations.
Peters did not mention any names, but Fox’s leading prime-time host, Sean Hannity, has been the most vocal defender of the president while talking of a “deep state” and casting doubt on justice officials. Trump has been an avid watcher of Fox, most notably its morning “Fox & Friends” program. The network is consistently the top-rated cable network each week with a prime-time lineup of Tucker Carlson, Hannity and Laura Ingraham.
Peters also wrote, “Four decades ago, I took an oath as a newly commissioned officer. I swore to ‘support and defend the Constitution,’ and that oath did not expire when I took off my uniform. Today, I feel that Fox News is assaulting our constitutional order and the rule of law, while fostering corrosive and unjustified paranoia among viewers.”
Those are tough words, but ignorant ones. In fact, the entire news media is “assaulting our constitutional order and the rule of law.” CNN and MSNBC still hold to the pretense of accurate and fair reporting. Fox News may be a propaganda machine, but they have never made any effort to conceal whom they are rooting for. I’m just wondering why Peters didn’t bring up other cable news networks when criticizing Fox. Perhaps he knew his criticisms would get more media play if he concentrated his fire on the Trump-supporting network?
Fox seems to think so. Anyway, Peters will now make the rounds on cable TV news shows and maybe even the Sunday morning shows. Might even get a skit on SNL. He will be auditioning for another job, of course, which may be another reason he didn’t mention CNN or MSNBC.
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