Lt. Col. Ralph Peters (USA, Ret.) has been a fixture as a "strategic analyst" contributor on Fox "News" for a decade, often castigating Democrats for softness in dealing with Russia. Today, in a "dasvidanya" broadside, Peters said he couldn't take the shame of working at the propaganda outlet any more. Here are excerpts from his scorching farewell email to colleagues (h/t Buzzfeed):
In my view, Fox has degenerated from providing a legitimate and much-needed outlet for conservative voices to a mere propaganda machine for a destructive and ethically ruinous administration. When prime-time hosts--who have never served our country in any capacity--dismiss facts and empirical reality to launch profoundly dishonest assaults on the FBI, the Justice Department, the courts, the intelligence community (in which I served) and, not least, a model public servant and genuine war hero such as Robert Mueller--all the while scaremongering with lurid warnings of "deep-state" machinations-- I cannot be part of the same organization, even at a remove. To me, Fox News is now wittingly harming our system of government for profit.
As a Russia analyst for many years, it also has appalled me that hosts who made their reputations as super-patriots and who, justifiably, savaged President Obama for his duplicitous folly with Putin, now advance Putin's agenda by making light of Russian penetration of our elections and the Trump campaign. Despite increasingly pathetic denials, it turns out that the "nothing-burger" has been covered with Russian dressing all along. And by the way: As an intelligence professional, I can tell you that the Steele dossier rings true--that's how the Russians do things.. The result is that we have an American president who is terrified of his counterpart in Moscow. [snip]
So, to all of you: Thanks, and, as our president's favorite world leader would say, "Das vidanya." (our emphasis)When you've lost Ralph Peters ... But, of course, he's right. It is a cesspool of crackpots and sedition.
