Mike Barnicle and Tina Brown’s double-standard defense of Hoffa. Ping to Today show list.
Mike Barnicle? The plagiarist?
Boston Globe Controversy
In 1998, Barnicle resigned from the Boston Globe amid allegations of fabrication and plagiarism, respectively, in two of his columns. The first column, from October 8, 1995, recounted the story of two sets of parents with cancer-stricken children. When one of the boys, a black child, died, the parents of the other boy, a white child who had begun to recover, sent the dead child's parents a check for $10,000. When the Globe could not locate the people in the story, who had not been publicly identified, Barnicle insisted nonetheless that the story was true. He said he did not obtain the story from the parents but from a nurse, whom he declined to identify. Walter V. Robinson, a Pulitzer Prize-winning editor then in charge of the Globe's "Spotlight" investigative team, was unable to match a recorded death with the date of death claimed for the child.[2]
The second column, more than 80 lines of humorous observations dated August 2, 1998, contained observations from the 1997 book Brain Droppings by George Carlin.[3] After Barnicle said he had never read the book, the editor of the Globe issued a temporary suspension. However, after WCVB-TV subsequently aired a video clip of Barnicle recommending the book to viewers, the editor called for his resignation; this was rescinded under fire from readers and the suspension period doubled instead.[2] Barnicle has also been criticized for his tone in columns about Boston area mobster Whitey Bulger and for his friendship with Whitey's brother Billy Bulger.[4] [edit]