Michael Barnicle (born August 24, 1944 in Worcester, Massachusetts) is an award-winning writer and media personality based in Boston. He currently hosts a daily program on WTKK 96.9FM. Barnicle is a veteran newspaper columnist who has written for The Boston Globe, ^*" target="_blank" >and the Boston Herald, ^*." target="_blank" >He appears regularly on NBC and MSNBC television magazine shows Chronicle [http://www.thebostonchannel.com/chronicle/282761/detail.html" target="_blank" >^*, Hardball, Scarborough Country, and Imus in the Morning.

Barnicle began his career working for politicians, including the late Robert F. Kennedy, soon after graduating from Boston University in 1965. He was a speechwriter for John Tunney's California Senate campaign in 1970 and for Ed Muskie and vice presidential nominee Sargent Shriver in the 1972 presidential campaign. In 1972, Barnicle appeared in Michael Ritchie's film, The Candidate.

In 1998, Barnicle was forced to resign from his position as a columnist at the Boston Globe amid questions about sourcing in at least two of his columns written three years apart. His columns came under scrutiny after a scandal at The Globe enveloped another columnist, Patricia Smith, who resigned after it was learned that she fabricated people and quotes in some of her columns.

The Globe then announced a review of past columns and more scrutiny going forward for all of their columnists. Almost 400 of Barnicle’s columns were reviewed, and all were found to pass journalistic muster. However, later that summer, The Globe’s rival, the Boston Herald, showed that some jokes in a Barnicle column were similar to those in George Carlin’s 1997 book, Brain Droppings. ^*.

Upon review of hundreds of additional Barnicle columns, it was discovered that Barnicle had also failed to quote a source directly in a 1995 column.

Journalist battle lines were drawn. Barnicle received high-profile support from such prominent journalists as NBC’s Tim Russert and Tom Brokaw and the Washington Post’s Richard Cohen. His detractors went on to pore through his body of work, noting their complaints with a handful of columns dating back 20 years.

Despite a tumultuous end at The Globe, Barnicle later said that he had nothing but “fond feelings” for his years there. Soon after, he was recruited to write columns for the New York Daily News and then the Boston Herald, the latter of which had excessively covered the events surrounding his resignation. Today, The Globe sports columnist Dan Shaughnessy is a regular member of Barnicle’s daily radio program. [http://www.wtkk.com/FMTALKPersonalities/MikeBarnicle/tabid/56/Default.aspx

• 1944 births
• Living people
• American radio personalities
• Irish-Americans
• Columnists
• Roman Catholic writers
• Bostonians
• Journalists accused of fabrication or plagiarism