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Fox News Contributor Quits, Slamming Network As 'Propaganda Machine'

The network is “fostering corrosive and unjustified paranoia among viewers."

A longtime Fox News analyst is quitting, saying the network has become a Trump administration “propaganda machine” that falsely disparages the FBI and intelligence community.

Retired Army Lt. Col. Ralph Peters, in a sharply worded email to colleagues obtained by BuzzFeed and The New York Times, said he decided not to renew his contract with Fox News. Peters, who once referred to former President Barack Obama as a “total pussy” who was being “date raped” by Russian President Vladimir Putin, contributed to the network for about a decade.

“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. The network has devolved, Peters continued, into “a mere propaganda machine for a destructive and ethically ruinous administration.”

Peters castigated prime-time anchors who denigrate the work of federal agencies and the intelligence community ― including Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who Peters called “a model public servant and genuine war hero” ― for the sake of defending President Donald Trump.

He also accused Fox of aligning itself with Putin, and said Russian involvement in the 2016 presidential election and sordid revelations in the Christopher Steele Trump dossier are true.

“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,” Fox News said in a statement. “We are extremely proud of our top-rated primetime hosts and all of our opinion programming.”

Peters contributed to the network’s programming with personal and often outlandish views. He defied conservative orthodoxy, however, by advocating a ban on assault-style weapons after last month’s mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida.

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