"Fox Mole": How Sean Hannity Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Teleprompters

[kpete]

How Sean Hannity Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Teleprompters

What follows is a dispatch from Joe Muto, otherwise known as the Fox Mole. It was to be the third in a series of anonymous columns Muto was planning on writing for Gawker from inside Fox News. After being discovered yesterday evening, Muto was fired by Fox effective today. Soon he will write a fuller accounting of his time at Fox and why he chose to leave in the way that he did.

Sean Hannity's interviews are a source of embarrassment for many of us at the network. Even those ideologically sympathetic to him joke about the ostentatiously friendly treatment he routinely gives Republican candidates. Not that anyone at the network is in the business of grilling GOPers, of course. But Bret Baier and Chris Wallace have been known to make politicians on the right squirm in their seats every once in a while. Hell, even O'Reilly seems to know that you've got to give the interviewee a little bit of chin music, if only to give yourself cover later when someone questions your credibility.

But that lesson seems to have escaped Hannity. And despite the derision it earns him from the Lamestream Media, it's probably been mostly beneficial for his show. The reason he's able to book so many GOP luminaries is that they know that they have a safe space, a child-proofed room where they'll be able to talk at length without interruption, state falsehoods without challenge, and reach the Republican base completely unfiltered.

Hannity's welcoming cocoon even extends to fake-conservative Mitt Romney. If you listen to Sean on a regular basis, you can tell that he's suspicious of Mitt—rightfully so, because now that Romney has sewn up the nomination, he's going to attempt to pivot away from conservatives so fast and hard that Ronald Reagan's tombstone is probably going to crack in half. But Hannity can read the writing on the wall, so he invites him on the show and makes nice with him.

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MORE:
http://gawker.com/5901344/how-sean-hannity-learned-to-stop-worrying-and-love-teleprompters?tag=inside-fox-news

[tularetom]

1. Even by the ridiculously low standards of right wing radio host intelligence

Hannity is a moron.

[arcane1]

2. Indeed, he was hired to be more handsome than Colmes

definitely NOT for his mind

[southernyankeebelle]

3. I have been following this mole on gawker. I hope he gives us some more inside stuff. It

is interesting to see the BS that comes out of Fox.

[lacrew]

4. I don't think you'll see any more from the 'mole'

Hint: The story has his real name in it.

[southernyankeebelle]

5. Yes I know. But he still has stories to tell. He was there for over 10 yrs.

[lacrew]

6. True, but the same would be true of any ex-employee from Fox

.......who we usually hear very little from, due to....clauses in their contracts.

This guy is going to pucker up every opening, and hire an attorney to fight of Fox's lawsuits.

[jeff47]

7. According to previous reporting by Gawker

It's the severance agreement that has the clauses preventing former employees from talking.

Since he's been "suspended" and not fired yet, then he has signed no severance agreement. And it's abundantly clear that Gawker is going to be his severance pay.

[lacrew]

9. Ever wonder why nobody on a reality show yaps about who won...

....until after the final show has aired?

Because they signed something, on day one.

His lips are now zipped.

[jeff47]

10. You would have a point if he had stopped talking.

He was identified, suspended, posted a story announcing his name, posted another story talking about Fox's HQ building, and then posted this story.

If he signed something, the maximum penalty is they can fire him. Which they're already in the process of doing.

What fox apparently does is require an agreement to receive severance pay, and violating that agreement requires paying back the severance. Since he has no such agreement, we're back to the earlier agreement where they can only fire him.

[lacrew]

11. There can be a higher penalty than firing

That's why I used the reality show example. When you sign on the dotted line, you agree to pay a gazillion dollars, if you flap your gums.

I can't imagine they had a guy working for Orielly, without a clause like that. We've been treated to glimpss of Oreilly's off camera personality...they surely want to keep that under wraps.

I could be wrong (or maybe this guy doesn't know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em)...but I'd say right about now people close to him are telling him to zip it.

[jeff47]

12. No, actually there can't be.

Federal and state employment law comes into play. The worst they can do is fire him. They can't seize his pay. They can't demand piles of cash. They could try to sue for defamation, but that would fail badly. This is why Fox has to use severance agreements - that money isn't protected by employment law, and they can make an agreement where they can demand it back if the former employee talks.

Reality TV can do more because they didn't hire the contestants - and they can make the awards they win on the show contingent on not spilling the beans. This is not the same situation.

[lacrew]

13. This is why they probably ask for an Employment Contract

This is how employers enforce non-compete agreements....I don't know where the Fox studios are, or what state...but I bet its a state where this mole's activity can be considered a breach of contract.

The severance agreements don't necessarily work, if the employee is fired...and since there have been few tell all books about Fox to date, I strongly suspect Fox relies on other means to protect themselves, as well.

We'll see if this guy keeps talking/Gawking.

[jeff47]

14. Seriously????

Even if you know nothing about Fox, you can't take a minute to even read the guy's articles? Where he talks about his commute on the NY subway. Yet you think you have all the information about his employment contract?

The possible penalty for violating the severance agreement is returning the severance pay. If the author thinks they're gonna make more from a tell-all book, then they're gonna write a tell-all book.

[lacrew]

15. What does it matter

I fail to understand what my reading of Gawker has to do with the fact that Fox is not going to just sit and take it. As I suspected, Fox is firing back:

"Be advised that Muto's admissions are admissions of likely criminal and civil wrongdoing on both his and Gawker's part, which will be the subject of further extensive investigation. Fox News will pursue its rights and remedies in the appropriate legal forums," Thursday's letter from Epstein Becker & Green PC to Gawker read.

...Fox can (and probably will) hurt Muto, outside of just firing him or witholding salary. I don't need to reader Gawker to understand that. (The company I work for has pursued ex-employees for civil damages, successfully - it happens all the time).

[southernyankeebelle]

8. Well who knows. We shall see.