Joe Muto, the
former Fox News employee turned Fox News Mole, is writing his memoir.
“Writing a memoir is less of a pleasant experience than I
had thought it would be. Mentally reliving my early twenties in great detail is
not that fun,” said Mr. Muto. “I never expected to be writing a memoir at age
30.”
Mr. Muto became a short-lived media celebrity last spring.
He was fired from his job as an associate producer for The O’Reilly Factor in
April, less than 48-hours after he began leaking unaired footage and workplace
anecdotes to Gawker.
By May, Mr. Muto had scored a book deal in the “low
six-figures,” been snapped by paparazzi outside his Williamsburg apartment, and been
served papers and had his Apple products confiscated by the district attorney.
Although Mr. Muto hasn’t heard from the D.A. or his own
lawyer in a few months (a good sign, he notes) he would still like to get his
iPad, phone and old laptop back. Or at least he is looking forward to replacing them once his first
advance check comes.
Mr. Muto sold the proposal to Dutton last May, although he
just signed the paperwork a few weeks ago. The first draft of what Mr. Muto
says his agent, Anthony Mattero of Vigliano Associates, describes
as “The Devil Wears Men’s Warehouse” is due in October. The book is slated to
come out next sometime next spring.
Except for a writing a review of Aaron Sorkin’s The Newsroom for Slate, Mr. Muto has kept a
low profile this summer.
“The Fox Mole story is a million years old now. It lasted
for four days in April,” said Mr. Muto. “Hopefully there will be more interest
when the book comes out.”
The actual book will be different than the material he
published on Gawker. For one, Bill O’Reilly, Mr. Muto’s one-time boss, will be more
prominent than he was in the Gawker posts.
“There is some personal stuff in the book, but it’s not a
James Frey, woe-is-me kind of thing,” he said. “It’s a workplace memoir, an
insider’s view of working at Fox News.”
Mr. Muto originally reached out to Gawker, partially because
he was interested in a job. He had the unaired footage and pictures as a
selling point, but after talking to Gawker editors, he ended up going in
the mole direction.
Writing about his twenties from the vantage point of thirty
may be intense, but Mr. Muto says he is mostly enjoying the actual writing process. Still, he
has some regrets. Namely, becoming the "Fox Mole."
“If I could do it
over, I don’t think I would have done it. The fox mole stuff got away from me,”
he said. “I originally meant it to be a funny prank on the way out of Fox.
Maybe I was naïve but I thought I could control the process.”
