Former Congressman Allen West (R-FL) has joined Fox News as a contributor, the channel announced. West was known for his outspoken views in Congress, views which often became fodder for cable news. He will appear across all FNC shows and platforms.

“Representative West’s congressional and military experience along with his fearless approach to voicing key issues will provide a valuable point of view to the FOX News lineup,” said executive VP of programming Bill Shine in a statement.

At the moment, West is director of next generation TV programming at PJ Media. More information, after the jump.
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Tonight at 9 PM on Fox News, Sean Hannity will celebrate a milestone. It will be the 1000th episode of “Hannity,” which replaced “Hannity and Colmes” in early 2009. In an interview with TVNewser, the Fox News host seemed incredulous at the thought of the number.

“Who would have thunk it? I should have lasted probably three shows before they fired me,” Hannity joked, adding that he credits Fox News chairman and CEO Roger Ailes with helping him become a cable news star. “I gotta give credit where credit is due and that is with Roger, seeing me personally through the early transition days from radio to TV. In this environment, I don’t think you can make the transition without scrutiny from day one.”

Hannity did face some scrutiny when he first started, including a scathing review from Newsday TV critic Verne Gay. Still, it pales in comparison to what newcomers to the scene face now.

“Ratings wasn’t the end-all at the beginning, it was putting on good programming.” Hannity says. “Now if you are on two days, people are saying, ‘well the show’s a hit,’ or ‘the show’s a failure.’ You really need time to build an audience, to bond with an audience. You have to understand the news cycle aspect to ratings, and a lot of people don’t seem to understand that.”

Time has been on Hannity’s side. “Hannity” consistently wins its timeslot. (Though MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow gave it a run in the demo earlier this year). And as the ratings for Fox News have grown, its impact on society has too. But Hannity downplays his influence on the national conversation.

“I don’t really think of the impact I have on things,” Hannity says. “I take my job seriously, but I really don’t take myself seriously, and everyone that knows me really well knows that.

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When a media outlet becomes the news, it’s interesting to watch how other media outlets cover the story. At issue today, the Justice Department admitting it secretly recorded phone conversations of five AP reporters and an editor. It was a big story on all the morning shows. (We already told you about the reaction on “Morning Joe” from the AP’s executive editor.) On “CBS This Morning” Bob Orr called it “a very aggressive investigation.” On the “Today” show Pete Williams called it “an unusually broad government effort.” But on “Good Morning America,” Fox News host Bill O’Reilly said this may be the least of Pres. Obama’s worries.

“I don’t think that’s going to amount to much,” O’Reilly said of the phone taps. “It looks like they went through the warrant process and they had authorization to look at these records — the Justice Department did. But president Obama, he’s got some problems now. He better start to get control of the situation because there’s a lot of stuff going on.”

It was a shocking moment of gruesome reality that does not typically play out on cable news. On September 28, 2012, a man carjacked a vehicle and led police in a wild chase.

Fox News Channel and anchor Shepard Smith covered it live, culminating with the man running into a field and shooting himself in the head, live on camera. Fox News would go on to profusely apologize for the moment, blaming “severe human error.”

Now, BuzzFeed’s Jessica Testa travels to Arizona to get the story on who that man, Jodon Romero, was, and what happened that day. Testa finds the man’s sister, Nature Romero, and discovers that she watched what happened, live on TV:

About an hour later, she turns on the TV, flipping through channels before landing on Fox. A man is fleeing police after stealing a car from a Denny’s. It happened less than a mile from Jodon’s house.

She waits a few minutes, then dials the non-emergency police line: “I have reason to believe that’s my brother.”

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21st Century Fox, which will become the parent company of Fox News once News Corp. completes its split into two companies, has unveiled a new logo. The logo, left, plays off of the iconic spotlights that were a focal point in the old “20th Century Fox” logo, and adds a more modern font.

“Like our name, the logo reflects the rich creative heritage of Twentieth Century Fox and signals the promise of the 21st century and our restless drive toward the future,” wrote News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch in a note to staff. “Ultimately, our new logo celebrates the powerful commitment of you and your colleagues to the excellence and innovation that will propel 21st Century Fox forward.”

They also produced a video for the logo:

21st Century Fox from 21st Century Fox on Vimeo.

Fox News mole Joe Muto entered a Manhattan courtroom in handcuffs this afternoon, pleading guilty to two misdemeanor charges.

A source inside the courtroom tells TVNewser two detectives escorted a cuffed Muto into the courtroom, sat him on a back bench and about 5 minutes later removed the handcuffs as he moved to the front of the courtroom to hear the judge read out the plea agreement. That part of the proceedings took about 20 minutes.

In April 2012, while still a Fox News employee, Muto began writing stories for Gawker about life inside Fox News. He became known as the Fox News mole. After his identity was revealed, he was fired from Fox.

Muto must pay a $1,000 fine, the $5,000 he earned from Gawker which goes to a good cause, serve 10 days of community service assigned by the court, then 200 hours of community service at a nonprofit organization. He’s also not getting back is laptop taken during an early morning police search. Muto had worked at Fox News for 8 years, most recently as an AP on “O’Reilly Factor.”

He’s since written a book about the experience, which comes out in a few weeks. One of the conditions of the agreement: if he is found to be in possession of any Fox News item, whether it be a key chain or an 80′s era image of Bill O’Reilly, Muto could be sent to jail for a year.

A Fox News spokesperson tells TVNewser, “We are very grateful to the Manhattan District Attorney’s office for their dogged pursuit of this case and for obtaining justice in this matter.”

See the plea agreement after the jump…

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Gawker is reporting that Fox News mole, Joe Muto, will plead guilty today to misdemeanor attempted theft and attempted computer tampering charges.

The agreement, in which the Manhattan District Attorney’s office has pledged not to file harsher felony charges in exchange for Muto’s guilty plea on lesser offenses, stems from unaired, behind-the-scenes Fox News footage that was published on Gawker last year in posts attributed to the Fox Mole.

Muto was an 8-year Fox News employee — an “O’Reilly Factor” associate producer — who turned on the network, became a “mole” writing stories for Gawker and was subsequently revealed, and fired. He was later charged with a crime. Gawker’s John Cook says Muto will pay a $1,000 fine, forfeit the $5,000 Gawker reportedly paid him, and serve more than 200 hours in community service. Muto’s book, “An Athiest in a Fox Hole” is still set for release in a few weeks.

This morning starting at 11:30, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee will hold a hearing on what exactly happened during the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya that resulted in the deaths of four people, including the U.S. Ambassador to Libya.

Fox News and CNN are planning live coverage of the hearings, with CNN bringing in Jake Tapper, Dana Bash, Wolf Blitzer and Arwa Damon to join the coverage. Fox News will have Bret Baier, Congressional correspondent Mike Emanuel, chief Washington correspondent James Rosen and Fox News contributor and Amb. John Bolton contributing.

Interestingly enough, it is quite likely that the Sunday public affairs shows will be part of the story. U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice appeared on the network Sunday shows and argued that the attack was spontaneous and not premeditated. That now appears not to be the case, and some State Department officials say they knew that all along.

Elsewhere, The Washington Post profiles CBS News correspondent Sharyl Atkisson as “a persistent voice of media skepticism on Benghazi.”
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Believe it or not there was a Congressional race last night. The race–largely inconsequential in terms of affecting legislation–nonetheless became national news, as the Democratic candidate, Elizabeth Colbert Busch, is the sister of comedian Stephen Colbert, while the Republican candidate was disgraced former Governor Mark Sanford.

It was a close race, but Sanford topped Colbert Busch to take the seat.

According to TVEyes CNN projected the race for Sanford at 8:31, MSNBC called it for Sanford citing the AP at 8:35, while Fox News cited the AP right at 9 PM, as “Hannity” began. Update: FNC did note the victory in a ticker text update at 8:39, citing the AP.

“Hannity” didn’t dwell on the race until midway through the show (when Karl Rove appeared to talk about), only saying at the top that Sanford “easily” topped Colbert, adding later on that she might have had a shot if not for her “goofy, liberal” brother. MSNBC announced the news by referring to Sanford as “scandal-plagued,” and that Colbert Busch faced an “uphill climb” against the former Governor.

Anderson Cooper ended up correcting something he said when he first announced Sanford’s win:

“Earlier I said he resigned as Governor after news broke of his extramarital affair,” Cooper said. “I want to correct that, he did serve out his term.”

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Fox News “America Live” anchor Megyn Kelly has signed a new contract with the cable channel, according to Brian Stelter in the New York Times.

Kelly had met with executives at CNN and ABC News before deciding to stay at FNC.

Update: A Fox News spokeswoman tells TVNewser “We will neither confirm nor deny any contract discussions with Megyn Kelly.”

Last November, TVNewser sat down with Fox News CEO Roger Ailes, where he talked about keeping her in the family:

We’d love her to stay here and be even a bigger star. So I’m not going to go past that. I’d be stunned if she wanted to go any other cable channel. That’s a real dive off a high cliff. If somebody wanted her to host the “Today” show or something, she’d have to look at that I suppose. Nobody’s ever left here and made it and a lot of people who left other places have done really well here.

It is widely believed inside FNC that Kelly is being groomed for a larger role at the channel, either later in the afternoon or in primetime. With Bill O’Reilly and Sean Hannity signing new deals in the last year, the next primetime contract to expire is that of 10 PM anchor Greta Van Susteren, whose last deal was inked in 2010, though it isn’t clear exactly when it ends.

Shepard Smith‘s contract also expires at the end of the year. Both Smith and Van Susteren have been rock-solid ratings leaders in their respective timeslots over the last few years, so any change would be a big one.