Ralph Peters Claims He Left Fox News Because They Stopped Using Him For Trump-Russia Coverage

Former Fox News strategic analyst Ralph Peters is continuing his rampage against his old network, saying that their restrictions on him show how they’ve become President Trump‘s propaganda outlet.

Peters recently attracted significant media attention when he quit the network with a scathing email about how they defend Trump at almost every turn. In a new op-ed for Washington Post, Peters lamented that Fox’s most intellectual contributors have been driven away because the network is more interested in paranoia and pro-Trump talking heads than actual substance.

As an example, Peters noted that despite his expertise with Russia and foreign intelligence, he was increasingly blocked from providing commentary on the many Russia-related issues overshadowing the White House:

I was the one person on the Fox payroll who, trained in Russian studies and the Russian language, had been face to face with Russian intelligence officers in the Kremlin and in far-flung provinces…Yet I could only rarely and briefly comment on the paramount security question of our time: whether Putin and his security services ensnared the man who would become our president.”

Fox News pushed back on Peters’ allegations in a statement, claiming “There is no truth to the notion that Ralph Peters was ‘blocked’ from appearing on the network to talk about the major headlines, including discussing Russia, North Korea and even gun control recently. In fact, he appeared across both networks multiple times in just the past three weeks.”

“Fox never tried to put words in my mouth, nor was I told explicitly that I was taboo on Trump-Putin matters,” Peters wrote in his piece. “I simply was no longer called on for topics central to my expertise.”

“Listening to political hacks with no knowledge of things Russian tell the vast Fox audience that the special counsel’s investigation was a “witch hunt,” while I could not respond, became too much to bear,” he added.

Peters moved on to slam the hosts and commentators who consistently go on air to bash the intelligence community or shout “fake news” about any troubling developments for Trump. Peters particularly directed his ire towards Lou Dobbs on this front:

“Dobbs has no experience with the intelligence system. Yet he ranted about its reputed assaults on our privacy and other alleged misdeeds (if you want to know who spies on you, it’s the FGA — Facebook, Google and Amazon — not the NSA). When I insisted that the men and women who work in our intelligence agencies are patriots who keep us safe, the host reddened and demanded, “Patriotism is the last refuge of the — you fill in the blank.” As I sought to explain that, no, the NSA isn’t listening to our pillow talk, Dobbs kept repeating, “Patriotism is the last refuge of the — fill in the blank.

Because I’d had a long, positive history with Dobbs, I refrained from replying: “Patriotism is the last refuge of the talk-show host.”

Peters’ op-ed rebuking Fox News comes after the former network analyst slammed CNN and MSNBC as equal culprits in feeding the propaganda machine.

[Image via screengrab]

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