Fox News Channel said it will discipline employees who sent multiple emails to an aide to former Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt about crafting a “Fox & Friends” interview with the then-administrator.
In the emails, Pruitt’s aide suggested the interview and provided “talking points,” according to the Associated Press.
The aide also asked to approve the script that would introduce the administrator, who served under President Trump from Feb. 2017 to July 2018.
Although Fox did not say who was being disciplined, the network said the email exchange “is not standard practice whatsoever and the matter is being addressed internally with those involved.”
In the May 2017 exchange, uncovered through a Freedom of Information Act request made by the Sierra Club, a nonprofit environmental organization, former EPA press representative Amy Graham told Fox that Pruitt would be in New York and able to appear in-studio to talk about reforms the administrator was making to help communities poorly served by former President Barack Obama’s administration.
“Pruitt has been outspoken about the lack of environmental accomplishments under the Obama administration, calling President Obama ‘no environmental savior’ and he would like to expand on these comments,” Graham wrote in the email.
Andrew Murray, “Fox & Friends” producer, agreed to the interview, and Graham requested confirmation that this would be the only topic discussed.
“[W]e really need to stick with this as the topic,” Graham responded, to which Murray agreed.
Diana Aloi, another producer, was assigned the segment.
The emails reveal that Aloi requested “bullet points” on what Pruitt would like to discuss in the interview and later gave an introductory script, asking if it would be “OK as the setup to the segment?”
Pruitt resigned this summer after multiple questions of his ethical lapses, including excessive spending on travel and security.
