Fox News in 2012 (Credit: Wikipedia/ Steve Bott)

There was a very good reason that Scott Pruitt seemed well prepared whenever he was interviewed on Fox News’ Fox & Friends program. Indeed, according to the Daily Beast, Fox & Friends gave the former Environmental Protection Agency Administrator its script beforehand. The Daily Beast cited Freedom of Information Act-released e-mails as its source for this revelation about Pruitt, who resigned from the EPA in July after months of controversy.

For example, the Daily Beast cited a May 2017 interview when Pruitt’s staff asked Fox & Friends to interview him about a topic he wanted to discuss. The Daily Beast cited e-mails from Fox News staff offering to provide pre-interview questions, asking for talking points and what issues he wanted to “discuss specifically.” An e-mail from Fox News’ producer Diana Aloi also provided the script for Pruitt’s introduction, seeking his approval.

For an April interview, a Fox News producer told Pruitt’s staff what “three topics the show wanted to cover,” the Daily Beast noted, and six of eight questions to Pruitt were “related to the topics agreed upon by producers and the EPA.”

Fox News told the Daily Beast the interactions with Pruitt weren’t “standard practice whatsoever and the matter is being addressed internally with those involved.” iMediaEthics has written to Fox to ask if it is reviewing how Fox & Friends producers coordinate interviews and if anyone was disciplined as a result. A Fox News Channel spokesperson responded with its earlier statement to the Daily Beast that “This is not standard practice whatsoever and the matter is being addressed internally with those involved.”

For more details, check out the Daily Beast report.