I don’t have much sympathy for Fox News employees. Nor do I have sympathy for Fox News contributors, nor for guests of Fox News. They’re all adults, they’re all sentient human beings. They know they’re appearing on (or getting paychecks from) a propaganda machine. Everyone has known what Fox News is for two decades at this point. During Republican administrations, Fox News is the state-run media, the echo chamber of the administration’s talking points, and in the Trump administration, it’s where Trump is finding his “best people” because he’s an idiot old man who loves to spend all day watching Fox News. But one Fox News contributor just had a come-to-Jesus moment about what Fox News is really doing. And he’s shocked!
Lt. Col. Ralph Peters is leaving his post at Fox News, saying he’s “ashamed” to be part of a “propaganda machine for a destructive and ethically ruinous administration.” In an email to colleagues, which was obtained by BuzzFeed, the longtime contributor shared why he’ll no longer appear on the network.
“Four decades ago, I took an oath as a newly commissioned officer,” he wrote. “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. Over my decade with Fox, I long was proud of the association. Now I am ashamed.”
He continued, “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.”
Peters, who was suspended in 2015 for calling then-President Barack Obama a “total p—y,” also criticized the network for “advancing” Russian President Vladimir Putin’s agenda.
In a statement, Fox News responded to Peters’ comments: “Ralph Peters is entitled to his opinion despite the fact that he’s choosing to use it as a weapon in order to gain attention. We are extremely proud of our top-rated primetime hosts and all of our opinion programming.”
Is this a case where we can shrug and say “better late than never” and welcome him to the Resistance? Or nah? I don’t dismiss what Peters is saying at all – he’s absolutely right that Fox News has gotten much, much worse in the Trump era and it’s appalling what they’re doing to America’s Zaddy Bob Mueller. But… it was appalling what Fox News did during the Obama administration too. What Fox News did during the Bush administration was appalling as well. Fox News has been an appalling right-wing conspiracy machine fueled on racism, misogyny, bigotry and treason for decades. It’s not like Peters was out there, Shep Smithing this thing, wherein Shep Smith goes on air every day and dismantles Fox News from within (and God bless him for that). Peters was just as f–king problematic as everybody else!
Photos courtesy of Fox News.
That’s great and everything except that they have never been a legitimate outlet for conservative voices and their insanity as a propaganda machine for the extreme right has been growing for years.
Am I supposed to give him a cookie because he just now realizes they are actively working to help 45 undermine our rights?
Exactly.
@Kaiser-you said everything I was thinking. I mean, it’s a great thing when anyone publicly calls out Faux News, but this guy worked for them for TEN years. Why is he acting like this is a recent development?
No sympathy
He was all in until they started going after institutions and people he respects. Which is, quite frankly, a common human reaction and not a particularly commendable one.
I agree with you assesment which is why I think this “moment of enligtenment” is still good. I may think this is hypocritical but I will keep that view as well as my urge to say something mean about this guy in this moment to my self. So: good for you, grandpa! To demand (or to expect) that the mases act upon a principle of morality or integrity would be unrealistic, most people not act but react only when something becomes personal to them or touches the things they deeply care about. There are those crazies at Fox News that Trump America looks up to and treat like as some prophets. So when some of them come out of their ivory tower of delusion and say somethig like this guy, the better. Because we all know they won’t listen to us, to scientists or real journalists. And we can’t ignore the fact that there are a lot of them and they all have the right to vote which they use to basicaly destroy democracy. The probability of destroying this cult from within has much higher probability that trying to outargument them. And it has to be these people because Trump ain gonna do it.
But that’s the normal process. You can accept a lot of crap as long as it’s flung at people you think deserve it. Then when the crap is flung at people and institutions that you are absolutely sure don’t deserve it – you then know with certainty that this is wrong and if you have integrity, that’s when you leave.
I think he should be commended for having the courage to say what he said and to very strongly stand up for the Constitution and institutions that are currently under attack. We all come to such realizations on our own time schedule. Because of his prior work on Fox News, he will be actually heard by many people who would not listen to others. This should generate a few little cracks in the concrete shielding their ears.
Agreed. I mean, he absolutely deserves no cookie whatsoever, he’s a horrible person, but people listen to him and even one brain-washed FOX viewer rethinking their ways is a success in my book. So yeah, I won’t recommend him for the realisation but for speaking out about it.
At what point does love for country kick in over loyalty to party? It’s interesting to see where the line is for people. I guess this guy found his.
I guess if we define the resistance as being faithful to preserving a system where there is some sense of structure that people answer to rather than everything existing to prop up petty demagogues, then this guy is part of it.
Maybe we need more of these defections because they may provide cover for other Republicans to start pulling away.
“Maybe we need more of these defections because they may provide cover for other Republicans to start pulling away.”
I tend to agree. The guy is loathsome but his move might inspire others.
I’m surprised he was suspended for calling Obama names. You’d think that would’ve earned him a promotion.
I doubt he was suspended for calling Obama a pu$$y. More likely it was simply the word he used. Those faux morally righteous folks.
I mean if this is where he gets off the ferris wheel, if this is where his humanity supposedly kicks in, I’m not impressed. I also think it’s about none of those things. It’s probably about Putin and the fact that even the most hardcore conservative/Republican opportunists can’t stomach bending over for Putin and his smug, weirdly bloated/Kardashianed face. This guy grew up with Russia as THE enemy.
It could be all those things that were the last straw. Trump’s Putin love might have been the first dissonance for him, but the other things he mentions make a lot of sense for someone with his background. I think he’s being truthful about why he left.
Fox News has been really going off the deep end recently trying to stop Mueller’s investigation. There really has been a big change in a scary direction, and this guy has worked there long enough to see it.
I wouldn’t normally be impressed, but considering the vast majority of Republicans have no problem with the Putin love and the bashing of Mueller, this man is ahead of the game. May he be the first of many.
No cookie for this dude, but a case of GSA Thin Mints to Shep Smith.
Getting out before Mueller unearths some nasty going ons at Fox perhaps? The Fox ship may be headed towards a Russian iceberg. Watch for more people to leave …
When even a whack job like Peters starts fleeing the ship…
But yeah, no sympathy. It’s not as if they’ve suddenly started behaving differently since he’s been there.
I have no sympathy for him in his ‘sudden enlightenment’ moment..but I can understand his putting trump in a seperate category–no matter how you disagreed with any former prez, you never doubted they would put the country and constitution over their own interests, and now it’s the opposite..not sure, but that might matter to longtime military.
Nah. I’m good. Still trash
I clicked on a story recently (about Dylann Roof’s sister who was arrested for bringing weapons to school on National Walkout Day and also for posting racist stuff on social media) that was on Fox News and made the mistake of looking at the comments. I despaired that these people will never change. But – although it is too little too late in a lot of ways – if a guy who called Obama a p**sy is now calling out Fox News, maybe there’s hope for a handful of the others.
That’s how I’m looking at it too – if it’s appalling to a 10 year, extremely conservative veteran of FOX, then it’s appalling period. Just think of all the horrible ish he was ok with before this! And yet trump is too disgusting for him – it should make FOX viewers sit up and take notice. (It won’t). But no cookie for him, sorry.
Nice to see FOX reward his years with them by impugning his motives for leaving. Lie down with dogs, get up with fleas.
He doesn’t deserve praise or sympathy and I’m not yet a big enough person to give him either of those things regardless of him deserving them.
I like Shepard Smith and Chris Wallace on Fox. Apart from those two men, Fox News is a cesspool.
My parents watched both Fox and CNN, and thankfully they realized how extreme some of the Fox hosts were getting. It’s far worse now. My Dad commented on how a couple had gone off the deep end since he’d started watching them.
The Orange era has just emboldened the nastiness.
Well duh! Fox “News”, is a just a brand. Although they employ some news reporters, they can say what they like (as per the 1st amendment) because it’s a cable channel. If it was broadcast then it would have to be FCC regulated and they’d have been sued all over the place by now.
They actually had to switch off the channel in the U.K. because it didn’t meet the standards required of a “news channel” and its bulls****ing existence was threatening some merger the Murdoch family was involved with.
Oh that’s what happened to to it. Use to watch CNN and BBC News then tune in to Faux News to get daily laughs at the stupid things the hosts and guests use to say.
The rats are abandoning the sinking ship!
My chief complaint of the GOP is they only break with their party til it personally affects them or their family otherwise they have zero empathy/sympathy ;
Dick Cheny and LBGQ rights because of his daughter
The Bushes and immigration because married to Hispanics
John McCain and torture
Peters has only found his moral compass because the network is attacking the Justice dept thereby demeaning his career.
Too little too late……
Most people do precisely that – they turn away from the mainstream community or their particular group on certain issues because they have personal experience to the contrary. That’s good. That gives them a certainty and commitment that others without personal connections to the human face of the issue may not have.
Change really does happen one by one, in just this way. This is why it has been so important that many people have become open about their sexuality when it’s not mainstream heterosexuality. The more people who personally know someone who is gay or lesbian or bisexual or trans or whatever, the bigger the shift toward acceptance and civil rights for everyone in such categories.
Successful coalitions deal with an issue that many different people can get behind. Once any group tries to push its own broader agenda on other matters onto people, the coalition falls apart for good reason. People can disagree strongly on some issues but agree strongly on others. We need to be able to work together when our beliefs coincide and respect the fact that people have different beliefs about other things. Teach by example, not by hammering on people.
This guy is an racist a$$ so who cares what he thinks? Makes me think he got wind his contract was not going to be renewed so he’s trying to save face.
What is “America’s Zaddy Bob Mueller?” Is this a typo? No snark here, I’m old and don’t get most of the slang anymore.
Zaddy could be same as “Zayde”, Yiddish for “Grandfather” perhaps?
That was my first thought 😊
Zaddy doesn’t mean grandfather, it means a sexy, handsome guy.