Gawker’s “Anonymous” Fox News “Mole” Identified As Joe Muto

Well, that didn’t take long — Fox News has identified the “mole” Gawker had in its newsroom: according to the network, the culprit is a man named Joe Muto.

A Fox News spokesperson sent us the following email:

“Joe Muto is fired effective April 12. Once the network determined that Mr. Muto was the main culprit in less than 24 hours, he was suspended late today while we pursued concurrent avenues. We are continuing to explore legal recourse against Mr. Muto and possibly others.”

Gawker, as we mentioned yesterday, sucks at anonymity, which is why — within 24 hours — we know the identity of its “anonymous” source in the Fox newsroom.

We’ve reached out to Mr. Muto. He hasn’t gotten back to us yet (it’s 1
a.m. — he gets a pass…for now). However, he got a little cocky this afternoon,
posting the following on Gawker’s website:

So Fox’s PR team has been telling people that they have “found” me
and are presently “exploring legal options.” If Fox has smoked me out,
it’s news to me. I’m still here. Back to work.

Sorry, “mole” — you’ve apparently been outed (and fired).

We’ll let you know if Muto gets back to us. Check back for updates.