News Corp lawyers threaten site with legal action after firing an employee who leaked embarrassing material over two days

This article is more than 8 years old

This article is more than 8 years old

Gawker's gleeful provocation of Fox News with the help of the "mole" it hired this week has reached its logical conclusion: lawyers for Fox have sent Gawker a cease-and-desist order accompanied by a threat of legal action for "criminal and civil wrongdoing".

Joe Muto, who came to be known as the Fox Mole over the course of two bizarre days, was hired by Gawker to anonymously post stories about what it's like to work for the top-rated News Corp channel.

The network was not amused. And Muto did not remain anonymous – or, for that matter, employed – for much longer.

"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.

Gawker posted the letter on its website, but refused to take any of Muto's content down, including a photo of Fox host Bill O'Reilly on a speedboat with a group of people that included a topless young woman. (Gawker is going through a particularly belligerent phase at the moment, under its new editor, AJ Daulerio.)

"We'll explain where it came from later", Gawker promised darkly.

Muto, an O'Reilly Factor associate producer until Wednesday, began anonymously posting to the media and gossip site on Tuesday, describing the grim working conditions at the network and even leaking footage of a Mitt Romney and Sean Hannity interview never intended for air.

Fox News, notoriously intolerant of even the slightest dissent among its ranks, circled the wagons and identified Muto later that day. Prompting ESPN's Don Van Natta Jr. to tweet:

For those keeping score, News Corp. needed five years to identify a newsroom full of phone-hackers and only 24 hours to identify one mole. — Don Van Natta Jr. (@DVNJr) April 12, 2012

Like some kamikaze blogger on a suicide mission, Muto, who was hired by Fox in 2004, posted a note addressed to network head Roger Ailes. "Hi Roger. It's me, Joe: the Fox Mole." He outed himself and said he was still employed by Fox News, but suspended with pay.

Not for long.

Fox News later issued a statement which read: "Joe Muto has been fired. Once the network determined that Mr Muto was the main culprit in less than 24 hours, he was suspended late yesterday while we pursued concurrent avenues. We are continuing to explore legal recourse against Mr Muto and possibly others."

Muto, whose greatest hits at Gawker included posting a photo of Fox News bathroom stalls, tweeted a picture of his termination letter.

Just delivered to my front door via messenger. Very polite of them actually. twitter.com/JoeMuto/status… — Joe Muto (@JoeMuto) April 12, 2012

Gawker and O'Reilly have a prickly relationship in which the gossip site has long taken great delight in O'Reilly's various personal and professional foibles. Last August Gawker posted a lengthy item about the TV host entitled How Bill O'Reilly Tried to Get His Wife's Boyfriend Investigated By the Cops.

Where this particular drama goes next, and what those "criminal" charges might be, is anyone's guess. But it's a slow-motion trainwreck that has left many media watchers scratching their heads.

Muto himself admitted just about anyone could have spotted this shitstorm on the horizon: