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Pastimes : Let's Talk About Our Feelings!!! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Bill who wrote (46613)	7/23/1999 12:58:00 PM
From: jbe	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 108807

Okay, Bill. Sorry to have missed the point. Well, I never heard of Mike Barnicle, either. So I ran a search. Turns out that Barnicle resigned from The Boston Globe last August, following a two-month suspension for alleged plagiarism. And turns out that he had a 25-year-long history of journalistic misconduct: Twenty-five years of trouble Patricia Smith was forced to resign for consistently fictionalizing over a concentrated period of time -- on four occasions in a little over a month this spring, and perhaps as many as 48 other times going back to 1995. Mike Barnicle's situation is different. Since joining the Globe in 1973, he has found himself in one professional misadventure after another. During that time, he's played by his own set of rules, and he's gotten away with it. Some highlights: 1973. Quotes a Roxbury gas-station owner as calling his black neighbors "niggers." A judge rules that Barnicle made it up, and the Globe pays a $40,000 award. 1979. Takes a leave of absence to report on Cambodia. Writes a piece for Hearst's Los Angeles Herald Examiner that is syndicated on the front page of the Globe's competition: Hearst's Boston Herald American. 1984. Goes to editor Tom Winship, says he wants to leave Channel 5's Chronicle to put more time into his column, and asks for big raise. Gets it, then refuses to leave Chronicle. 1984. In Christmas Eve column, borrows what the Phoenix refers to as "concept, tone, and several phrases" from a 1954 Jimmy Cannon classic. 1985. Writes column that gets national attention about a woman who's shot and injured, and whose mother catches the suspect. Globe retracts Barnicle's claim that the suspect had bullets in his pocket, and defense lawyers continue to insist that Barnicle's so-called interview with the suspect's mother was fictitious. 1990. After Charles Stuart jumps to his death, Barnicle writes columns exonerating the police for their false arrest of the original suspect, William Bennett. He later writes that Stuart had taken out a big insurance policy on his soon-to-be-murdered wife, but can't back it up. Years later, the Globe admits that it should have retracted the claim. 1990. Quotes Harvard Law professor Alan Dershowitz as saying he loves Asian women because "they're so submissive." Dershowitz blows a gasket, and Globe ombudsman questions Barnicle's credibility. The Globe pays a $75,000 out-of-court settlement. 1990. Writes column quoting a tenant's allegations that her Lynn landlord exposed himself to her and beats his wife. The outraged landlord, whom Barnicle said he couldn't contact, complains, and then-ombudsman Robert Kierstead writes that Barnicle should have held the column until he was able to reach the landlord. Eight years later, Globe vice president Al Larkin tells his own paper that the Globe may have reached an out-of-court settlement with the landlord, possibly in the form of an apology. 1991. Boston magazine publishes a series of articles charging that Barnicle made up characters and quotes. Barnicle says Boston's wrong, but declines the opportunity to prove it. 1992. Chicago Tribune columnist Mike Royko complains that Barnicle's been ripping off his columns and rewriting them slightly. Noting that the Globe subscribes to his column but rarely uses it, Royko sarcastically refers to his work as a "tip sheet" for Barnicle. 1992. Globe offers buyouts to employees in bid to reduce payroll. Barnicle says yes, and takes most of the summer off. Returns with a reputed $200,000 salary and a new title: associate editor. 1992. Writes of his colleagues, "Missing a story seldom bothers more than a handful around here." Four days later, the column appears as a full-page ad in the Herald. bostonphoenix.com Seems to me that anyone familiar with Barnicle's career should automatically be distrustful of anything he says. But he hardly seems typical. Joan