• Bill O’Reilly effectively “writes” the entire show during the car ride from his home to the studio, transcribed by staffers in the office.

• O’Reilly takes the viewer email segment very seriously, although on one occasion a prank name “Jack MeHoff” led to a humorous end result.

• O’Reilly really looked forward to when the ratings would come in after 4 PM, “like a kid on Christmas Eve.”

You can read Muto’s whole excerpt here, and an interview he gave to the NY Daily News here.

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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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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.

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On writing the book, Muto says, it “was both easier and harder than I expected. Easier, because the words just flowed and I never experienced anything resembling writer’s block; harder because crafting everything into a cohesive narrative instead of just an episodic collection of random anecdotes took a lot of work, a lot of planning, a lot of sweating the details.”

Romenesko: What’s next? Have job offers come in?

Muto: I have 8 years of TV production experience, a disturbingly intimate familiarity with the mind of Bill O’Reilly, and I’ve spent the last six months writing a book making fun of Fox News Channel. If that doesn’t at least get me into the room for a job interview with The Colbert Report, I don’t know what will.

But honestly, I don’t know what I’m going to do next. I’ve been busy with the book basically up until this week, so I haven’t pursued anything too seriously yet. Whatever I end up doing, I doubt I’m going to be talking about any of it much. For the next phase of my career I’m going to try out this brand new “discretion” thing that I’ve heard so much about.

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Unlike MediaMatters.org’s straight-faced The Fox Effect and Gabriel Sherman’s forthcoming (and reportedly deeply reported) The Loudest Voice in the Room, Mr. Muto’s book is pitched as a How to Lose Friends and Alienate People-style industry memoir in a Dave Barry/David Sedaris tone. The proposal outlines chapters devoted to the “cheapness and stinginess” of Fox News (“cannot be overstated”), Mr. O’Reilly’s morning ritual (“lots of yelling”) and—“in what’s certain to be the most talked about chapter of the book”—the 2004 sexual harassment suit filed against Mr. O’Reilly.

More from the Observer, here.

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He also used the opportunity to take a dig at FNC parent company News Corp.

I just got search warranted at 6:30am by a very polite crew from the DA’s office. Took my iPhone, laptop, some old notebooks.

— Joe Muto (@JoeMuto) April 25, 2012

According to the warrant, Fox News is apparently accusing me of grand larceny, amongst other things.

— Joe Muto (@JoeMuto) April 25, 2012

They’re pretty worked up over a clip of Romney talking about his horses.

— Joe Muto (@JoeMuto) April 25, 2012

I should have done something more innocuous, like hacked a dead girl’s phone and interfered with a police investigation.

— Joe Muto (@JoeMuto) April 25, 2012

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Here are the cable news ratings for that hour:

• 11am Sunday, April 15. Total Viewers / A25-54 viewers

Fox News — 1,019,000 / 185,000
Weather — 777,000 / 330,000
CNN — 413,000 / 100,000
MSNBC — 356,000 / 97,000
HLN — 318,000 / 133,000

With tornadoes having swept across the Midwest in the early morning hours, the Weather Channel topped all cable newsers, except FNC (which also led with the tornadoes at 11am). But a closer look at the numbers shows Muto’s appearance, as well as a discussion of 2012 politics, the Trayvon Martin coverage, and memories of Mike Wallace, didn’t seems to be a draw for CNN viewers.

“Sources” was down -22% in Total Viewers and down -43% in A25-54 viewers vs. the year-to-date average of 529,000 Total Viewers / 175,000 A25-54 viewers. Its lead-in “Fareed Zakaria GPS” was also down, but just -1% in Total viewers and -13% in younger viewers vs. year-to-date.

Fox News at 11am was up +1% / -20% vs. year-to-date, while MSNBC was up +18% / +3% vs. the year-to-date average of MSNBC Live and Melissa Harris-Perry which debuted in February.

Many viewers looking for the news about the weather at that hour, may have switched to TWC. In fact, the Weather Channel was up +254% in Total Viewers and up +200% in younger viewers compared to the week earlier.

One person who did catch the show, at least a clip of it later: Bill O’Reilly.

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“Well, I’ve been passing my resume out around here, no takers yet,” said Muto to Kurtz. “I think it’s pretty safe to say my career in cable news is over. I don’t foresee anyone outside of Current TV, hiring me. But I’m looking forward to some new opportunities.”

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Without commenting on his financial arrangements with Gawker, Muto told Howard Kurtz on CNN today, “this was a primal scream from a longtime Fox employee who just couldn’t take it anymore.”

Of the legal fight now brewing, Muto says Fox News is, “trying to intimidate me into silence because I’m revealing unflattering information about the inner workings of the company.”

“They promote people for pushing this conservative viewpoint,” Muto says of the “top-down” management, which “comes from Mr. Ailes himself.”

People at work knew I wasn’t really enthusiastic about the right-wing leanings there, and as a result it seemed after a while my career was stalling. I was never going to advance in the ranks there because I did not buy into this conservative viewpoint.”

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A preview:

Fox has since filed suit against Muto, alleging that he violated civil and criminal law with some of his leaks.

Also on “Reliable,” CBS News correspondents Steve Kroft and Bob Simon, who will remember their friend and colleague Mike Wallace.

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In fact a Fox News spokesperson tells TVNewser, “It’s now in the hands of our lawyers and law enforcement given that a crime has been committed.”

Muto, who was paid $5,000 by Gawker, was fired today after 8 years with the network. Last night he was questioned, put on paid leave and escorted from Fox News headquarters. The from the letter:

Be advised that your admissions are admissions of likely criminal and civil wrongdoing on both your and Gawker’s part, which will be the subject of further extensive investigation

The letter goes on advise Muto he “should immediately stop providing information and videos to Gawker …[and] immediately stop writing columns based on information that you unlawfully obtained while employed at Fox News. You should also immediately take all necessary steps to preserve all documents and information that may be relevant to your hire and employment at Gawker.”

Earlier in the day, Epstein, Becker & Green also sent a cease and desist letter to Gawker demanding they “immediately stop publishing information and videos that have been unlawfully obtained by or from Joe Muto and return them to Fox News.”

See the letter after the jump…

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Gawker’s John Cook tells me the gossip website paid Joe Muto $5,000 for his contributions as “The Fox Mole.” Muto, a former producer on “The O’Reilly Factor,” had intended to remain anonymous, but it took the network less than 24 hours to figure out where the leaks were coming from and have him escorted out.

Muto may not have exposed anything all that juicy about the inner workings of Fox News, but the stunt has already paid for himself and then some. Muto’s posts have racked up around 1.5 million page views.

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At 8:42pm tonight, Muto wrote on Gawker:

Two hours ago I was called into a meeting with Dianne Brandi, the Fox News Executive Vice President of Legal and Business Affairs and suspended indefinitely… with pay, oddly enough. They nailed me.

I am a weasel, a traitor, a sell-out and every bad word you can throw at me… but as of today, I am free, and I am ready to tell my story, which I wasn’t able to fully do for the previous 36 hours.

Muto signs off, “Stay tuned for much, much more tomorrow.”

> Update: A Fox News spokesperson released this statement tonight: “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.”

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