The following article by Matt Wilstein was posted on the Daily Beast website Jun3 6, 2018:
The former Fox commentator said Sean Hannity might actually believe his own conspiracy theories, but ‘the others are smarter, they know what they’re doing.’
Ret. Lt. Col. Ralph Peters isn’t done taking his former employer to task. A few months after he quit his position as military analyst at Fox News in dramatic fashion—calling the network a “propaganda machine”—he appeared on CNN with Anderson Cooper on Wednesday night and went even further in his condemnation.
While President Donald Trump has claimed that special counsel Robert Mueller is leading a “witch hunt” against him, Peters argued on CNN that it is Fox News that is promoting a witch hunt against Mueller.
“For years, I was glad to be associated with Fox. It was a legitimate conservative and libertarian outlet. And a necessary one,” Peters told Cooper. “But with the rise of Donald Trump, Fox did become a destructive propaganda machine. And I don’t do propaganda for anyone.”
Peters went on to say he believes the network in general and “particularly the prime time hosts” are attacking “our constitutional order, the rule of law, the Justice Department, the FBI, Robert Mueller,” and other intelligence agencies. “And they are doing it for ratings and profit,” he added. “And they’re doing it knowingly, and, in my view, doing a great, grave disservice to our country.”
Asked by Cooper if the prime-time hosts actually believe their own conspiracy theories about the “deep state,” Peters singled out Trump’s most loyal Fox News servant. “I suspect Sean Hannity really believes it,” he said. “The others are smarter, they know what they’re doing.”
“I want to cry out and say, ‘How can you do this? How can you lie to our country? How can you knowingly attack our Constitution, the bedrock of our system of government, the bedrock of our country?’” Peters said. “And when you go after the Constitution, you best beware, because you are doing a phenomenal, indeed immeasurable damage.”