Checking in with Joe Muto, the Fox Mole

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.”