Fox News military analyst quits in disgust over pro-Russia programming

Longtime Fox News contributor Ralph Peters resigned from the network this month, saying he could no longer work for a cable television outlet that was harming American democracy.

Peters is no centrist. He’s a hardcore conservative who was actually suspended by Fox after he denounced President Barack Obama as a “pussy.” Thus his resignation is a sure sign that the channel’s outlandish, and at times completely reckless, defense of Trump is causing major internal strife.

“Today, I feel that Fox News is assaulting our constitutional order and the rule of law, while fostering corrosive and unjustified paranoia among viewers,” Peters wrote in a Dear Colleagues email, as reported by BuzzFeed. “Over my decade with Fox, I long was proud of the association. Now I am ashamed.”

The blistering takedown completely shreds Fox News for losing its moral compass in an effort to protect Trump.

Peters, a retired Army lieutenant colonel, was especially stunned when Fox News launched a war on law enforcement and the intelligence community. The clear goal of that campaign was to try to raise doubts about special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation.

But Peters demolished the very idea of it, and the apparent aim.

 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.

Peters also noted that his expertise leads him to agree with the intelligence community, not with his network and Trump.

“As an intelligence professional, I can tell you that the Steele dossier rings true — that’s how the Russians do things,” he wrote.

And the brutal truth telling comes just days after another internal Fox News dispute erupted into public view. Host Shep Smith took aim at the network’s primetime lineup.

Smith contrasted his fact-based program — one of the few of its kind on Fox News — to the opinion shows. “We serve different masters. We work for different reporting chains, we have different rules,” he told Time Magazine. “They don’t really have rules on the opinion side. They can say whatever they want. If it’s their opinion.”

That prompted an angry Sean Hannity to call Smith “clueless.” But as Peters’ letter shows, Smith is hardly alone.

As Fox News continues its disgraceful and un-American programming, it may find other employees can no longer stomach it. As a result, more of them may follow the lead of Ralph Peters.