in 2008 petersen worked for the libertarian national committee and the atlas network, assisting on the 2008 and 2012 presidential bids of former u.s. representative from texas, ron paul. he was an associate producer at the fox business program "freedom watch with judge napolitano", which aired from 2010–2012, and later went to work as director of production at the conservative advocacy group freedomworks. petersen has also been a frequent guest on the rt program "the big picture with thom hartmann".