Mike Barnicle

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Michael Barnicle (born August 24, 1944 in Worcester, Massachusetts) is a radio talk show host in the Boston area with a daily program on WTKK 96.9FM. He is a former newspaper columnist for The Boston Globe and the Boston Herald and a regular contributor to the television magazine show Chronicle, MSNBC's Hardball, Scarborough Country, and Imus In the Morning.

In 1998, Barnicle was forced to resign from his position as a columnist at the Boston Globe when it was proven he fabricated quotations and facts in his columns. Earlier in 1998, Barnicle's plagiarism of George Carlin's book, Brain Droppings was revealed. In 1990, Alan Dershowitz sued the Boston Globe regarding an alleged quote Barnicle had attributed to him and won a $75,000 out of court settlement. [1] Regarding this dispute, The Globe's ombudsman sided with Dershowitz and questioned Barnicle's credibility.

Notwithstanding these controversies, and perhaps because of his family's social standing in the Boston business community and Washington political circles, he did not become a "journalistic pariah" in the fashion of Janet Cooke and Jayson Blair. In 2001, Barnicle hosted a companion show to Hardball, known as Mike Barnicle or Barnicle. It was cancelled in short time due to poor ratings. [2] In 2004, during a stint at the New York Daily News, he was hired by the Boston Globe's rival, the Boston Herald. He resigned in April 2005.

For years radio host Howie Carr has not agreed with former fellow Boston Herald columnist Barnicle, calling him a "hack" and saying he wanted to be the Boston Herald's "nonfiction columnist" (concerning acts of plagiarism -- [3] as well as the fabrication of identities and situations which caused his suspension and forced Barnicle's resignation from the Boston Globe). [4] Barnicle called Carr "a pathetic figure" and asked "Can you imagine being as consumed with envy and jealousy toward me for as long as it has consumed him?" [5]

The Boston Globe article also stated that Carr gave out Barnicle's home phone number, an allegation which is staunchly refuted by Mr. Carr.

Many years earlier, Barnicle appeared in Michael Ritchie's film, The Candidate.