The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

NYC Investigators Raid Fox News ‘Mole’

Posted on | April 25, 2012 | 14 Comments

For some reason, I never got around to blogging about Joe Muto, who was earning $60,000 a year as an associate producer for “The O’Reilly Factor” when he agreed — for the reported sum of $5,000 — to become a “mole” inside Fox News for Nick Denton’s Gawker blog. Among other things, Muto described the network’s Fox Nation blog as “an unholy mashup of the Drudge Report, the Huffington Post and a Klan meeting.”

It took every bit of 24 hours from the time of his first Gawker “mole” post for Fox executives to discover Muto’s identity and fire him. And now Muto may be facing criminal charges:

A “polite” crew from the District Attorney’s office served Fox Mole Joe Muto with a search warrant at 6:30 this morning, Mr. Muto said on Twitter.
Officers took his iPhone, laptop and old notebooks, he wrote, adding that, according to the warrant, he is being investigated for charges including grand larceny.

Muto used the occasion to to sling more snark at Fox, which prompted some helpful advice from FishbowlNY’s Chris O’Shea:

Uh, maybe — and we could be wrong here — the time to shut-up is after police raid your apartment.

No point trying to teach a punk like Joe Muto. In my experience, gossipy backstabbing malcontents who think they’re smarter than everyone else aren’t nearly as smart as they think they are, because no one could possibly be as smart as they think they are.

 

Category: Crime, Fox News, New York

Comments

14 Responses to “NYC Investigators Raid Fox News ‘Mole’”

  1. ThePaganTemple
    April 25th, 2012 @ 10:54 am

    Nobody with a brain would throw away a 60,000 dollar career for five thousand dollars. And to get caught that quick belies any notions of intellect. In a few years when he’s taking his meals at the local Salvation Army maybe he’ll realize he wasn’t so damn smart after all.

  2. richard mcenroe
    April 25th, 2012 @ 10:57 am

     Look at all our spies, Ames, the Walkers, etc.  People who turn their coats for money usually do it for peanuts compared to the value of what they’re betraying…

  3. ThePaganTemple
    April 25th, 2012 @ 11:49 am

     That’s true. There’s probably other motivations, like a grudge against somebody, or some thing. Or maybe even a perverse sense of excitement, or that they are doing something “useful”.

  4. Adobe_Walls
    April 25th, 2012 @ 1:06 pm

    After the police raid your anything is definately the time to shut up even the dumbest street thug knows that.

  5. Fox News ‘Mole’ busted again…but this time by NYC authorities. « The Rhetorican
    April 25th, 2012 @ 1:18 pm

    […] busted again…but this time by NYC authorities.Fox News ‘Mole’ busted again…but this time by NYC authorities. Share this:FacebookTwitterLinkedIn […]

  6. Bob Belvedere
    April 25th, 2012 @ 1:22 pm

    Hate to disagree with you there, Stacy, old buddy, old pal, but I am as smart as I think I am – at least that’s what my invisible friend Murray tells me [and he has superpowers!].

  7. Adjoran
    April 25th, 2012 @ 1:33 pm

    Probably the time to shut up was after he was discovered and fired.

    I expect the guy figured he would be snapped up by some other network right away.  He miscalculated – while the others may sympathize, they want at least plausible deniability.  And there aren’t many new jobs popping up in TV, either, unless you can produce reality shows.

    As a wise man said about 35 years ago, “If liberals were all that smart, they wouldn’t be liberals.”

  8. PaulLemmen
    April 25th, 2012 @ 1:36 pm

    My feeling is that there is much deeper mud here. Last summers Fox Nation hijacking by the trolls from Media Matters and the disappearance of every comment posted by conservatives (which progressed into all comments being wiped on threads by people that Fox claimed were not their employees) and the virtual takeover of the DISQUS comment software for a two week period (a period during which I was permanently banned), actions Fox claimed they had no responsibility for (and which had to have an “insider” to succeed). Curiouser and curiouser …

  9. McGehee
    April 25th, 2012 @ 2:54 pm

    But does he speak in lucid, complete sentences?

  10. jwallin
    April 25th, 2012 @ 2:56 pm

    Treason is rarely inspired by money. It’s usually just an adjunct to the real motive; sense of betrayal by the country and/or one’s peers or superiors.

    Add in some narcissistic egotism and voila! Instant Traitor.

    Most believe they’re better/smarter/cleverer/wiser/handsomer/prettier/more worthy etc. than those who’ve done better than them and gotten some reward the traitor feels was rightly there’s.

    An examination of historical traitors will highlight their common personality and thought.

    Some folks have a knack of finding creative ways of committing suicide.

  11. jwallin
    April 25th, 2012 @ 2:58 pm

    You apparently don’t watch COPS much, do you?

  12. richard mcenroe
    April 25th, 2012 @ 3:04 pm

     “The police told me I had the right to remain silent… but I didn’t have the ability…
     Ron White

  13. Montag500
    April 25th, 2012 @ 4:39 pm

    Thanks for the link to the  link to the Fox Mole Gawker column–the very last sentence of which reads, “Watch this space for future dispatches from the Fox Mole.“BWAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

  14. Adobe_Walls
    April 25th, 2012 @ 6:12 pm

    You too?