ANOTHER FOX NEWS PRODUCER QUITS

Another Fox News producer who quit last week, saying that he had qualms about working for the network over the past three years, has ridiculed his former Fox colleague, Joe Muto, who was fired after it was revealed that he was the Fox “mole” who began moonlighting for the Gawker website. Writing under the banner, “Why I Never Became Mediaite’s Fox News Mole,” Andrew Kirell commented on Mediaite.com, where he has been hired as an editor: “Kudos to Gawker for getting 1.5 million hits out of a hardly newsworthy story (and for only $5,000) but where does that leave Muto? He got the 15 minutes of fame he seems to have craved, but now he’s out of a job, maybe a career, and possibly knee-deep in legal trouble all for dirt you could find simply by touring Fox News or turning on your TV. The mundane ‘revelations’ he tried to pass off as salacious felt more like cheap gossip-porn for the anti-Fox crowd.” Kirell added that he and his colleagues at Fox “laughed” when they saw the “pretty worthless” footage that Muto posted. As for Muto’s complaint that he was snubbed by other network news operations once they saw Fox News on his résumé, Kirell observes, “When I sought to move on from Fox, I had pleasant meetings with other networks” even with Fox News blaring on my resume. Most people in the TV business recognize that being a Fox producer doesn’t necessarily mean you’re a raging conservative.” Finally Kirrell wrote that he too was unhappy with some of Fox News’s coverage, “But it was never a reason for me to want to do something as stupid as what Muto did. As an at-will employee, if I ever felt truly disgruntled, I could just, well, leave. And I did leave.”