When he was pulling his madcap antics of reporting for gossip tabloid Gawker.com on the goings on at Fox News, Joe Muto seemed to be having a lot of fun. To some naive communications folks he might have been a role model for taking on and down The Man. After all, at the time he was an employee of Fox News.
The fun is done. As TV NEWSER reports:
"Fox News mole Joe Muto entered a Manhattan courtroom in handcuffs this afternoon, pleading guilty to two misdemeanor charges."
Court. Handcuffs. A guilty plea. One wonders if Muto considers the fun worth it. He is paying a $1,000 fine. The $5,000 he earned doing a whistle-blowing column for Gawker has been donated to a good cause. He is serving 10 days of community service and putting in 100 hours of community service at a nonprofit. His book about Fox News comes out in a few weeks. One wonders if the image of this handcuffed boy-man is the kind which sells books. And, he is going to have trouble for a while getting work comparable to what he had had at Fox.
Obviously the guys at News Corp, parent of Fox News, don't fool around. They brought out the tank to deliver the message not to mess with them. Roger Ailes, head of Fox, won't be trifled with. This fun gone terribly wrong will deter other potential madcaps from partnering with a gossip rag like Gawker.