The Barnicle Files
The fall of star columnists Mike Barnicle and Patricia Smith has raised serious questions about the future of the Boston Globe. Here's what happened during the Globe's "Summer from Hell."
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The Barnicle FilesThe fall of star columnists Mike Barnicle and Patricia Smith has raised serious questions about the future of the Boston Globe. Here's what happened during the Globe's "Summer from Hell."
All articles by Dan KennedyAll articles were published in the Boston Phoenix unless otherwise noted. |
May 22
GET ME REWRITE
The Boston Globe is one of the best regional papers in the country. So why is its local coverage so disengaged, so uneven -- and so dull?
This article was published a month before Patricia Smith was forced to resign for fabricating characters and quotes. It includes a sidebar, "The Un-Metro Columnists," in which I criticize Smith and Barnicle for writing lazy, unreported columns. After they were both exposed as fabricators, I felt a bit like Lily Tomlin: I try so hard to be cynical, but sometimes I just can't keep up.
June 26
DON'T QUOTE ME: Sifting the ashes
Making sense of Patricia Smith's startling self-immolation.
July 10
DON'T QUOTE ME: Green days
How corporate greed -- fueled by stock-market fever -- is destroying newspapers. Plus, more fallout from the Patricia Smith affair.
July 17
THIS JUST IN: Media
Patricia Smith speaks out.
Smith breaks her silence in the Albany Times-Union.
August 7
THIS JUST IN: Barnicle on the brink
Actually, he wasn't thinking.
The Boston Herald catches Barnicle plagiarizing from Braindroppings, a bestselling book by George Carlin.
August 14
BARNICLE'S GAME
Why he should have been fired -- and why he wasn't.
Globe editor Matt Storin forced Barnicle to resign after the Carlin incident. Barnicle refused -- and on August 13, Storin, Barnicle, and publisher Ben Taylor staged an extraordinary news conference at which it was announced that Barnicle would be allowed to return following a two-month suspension.
August 21
STRIKING SIMILARITIES
Mike Barnicle, this is A.J. Liebling. Have you met?
On August 19, the Phoenix released an advance copy of this article -- which proves beyond a reasonable doubt that Barnicle was a plagiarist -- to news outlets in Boston and to major media organizations nationally. Several hours later, Barnicle was finally forced to resign for good, after Storin revealed that Barnicle had been caught fabricating details in a 1995 column about two kids with cancer.
September 4
MIKHAIL STORIN
Boston Globe editor Matt Storin came to power amid promises of change. He brought reform, but reform was not enough. What was needed was a revolution, and time proved him unable -- or unwilling. Now there are whispers that his regime may be coming to an end.
Storin later complained to the American Journalism Review that my attempt to compare him to Mikhail Gorbachev was "over the top." I prefer to think of it as "high concept."
September 7
HANGING BARNICLE (from the New Republic)
Boston Dispatch.
Despite the date on this, the article actually went to press on August 19, just a few hours after Barnicle's resignation. The editors did an amazing job of piecing this together and keeping it current.
October 9
THIS JUST IN: Media
Patricia Smith -- hot, cool, and creepy.
A review of a performance Smith gave of new poetry about her resignation from the Globe.
October 30
DON'T QUOTE ME: Column inches
The Globe replaces Patricia Smith and Mike Barnicle with reporters rather than personalities.
About the promotion of Adrian Walker and Brian McGrory.
THIS JUST IN: Media
Barnicle's on-again, off-again op-ed is on again.
On October 29, the Globe finally published Barnicle's op-ed column in which he defended himself against charges that he had fabricated his 1995 column about the kids with cancer.