Fox Mole Joe Muto: ‘For the next phase of my career I’m going to try out this discretion thing that I’ve heard so much about’

By Chris Ariens 

Remember Joe Muto, who, after a day of writing anonymously for Gawker was revealed as the Fox mole, then fired? Of course you do. Well he’s got a book coming out this Spring all about his time at Fox News and Jim Romenesko noticed Amazon.com already has the cover art (you can pre-order for the low, low price of $16.73). So Romenesko reached out to the former “O’Reilly Factor” associate producer for a Q&A.

On writing the book, Muto says, it “was both easier and harder than I expected. Easier, because the words just flowed and I never experienced anything resembling writer’s block; harder because crafting everything into a cohesive narrative instead of just an episodic collection of random anecdotes took a lot of work, a lot of planning, a lot of sweating the details.”

Romenesko: What’s next? Have job offers come in?

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Muto: I have 8 years of TV production experience, a disturbingly intimate familiarity with the mind of Bill O’Reilly, and I’ve spent the last six months writing a book making fun of Fox News Channel. If that doesn’t at least get me into the room for a job interview with The Colbert Report, I don’t know what will.

But honestly, I don’t know what I’m going to do next. I’ve been busy with the book basically up until this week, so I haven’t pursued anything too seriously yet. Whatever I end up doing, I doubt I’m going to be talking about any of it much. For the next phase of my career I’m going to try out this brand new “discretion” thing that I’ve heard so much about.

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