Globe Columnist Keeps His Job

Mike Barnicle, the Boston Globe's two-fisted columnist, successfully fended off demands from the newspaper that he resign for lifting jokes from a George Carlin book. Instead, he was suspended Tuesday for two months without pay.

Globe Editor Matthew V. Storin, who sought Barnicle's resignation last week, said he came to realize that the pugnacious, 25-year columnist deserved a second chance.

"The question comes, 'Well, why did you back off?'" Storin said. "Frankly I am persuaded by the argument that the punishment doesn't fit the crime."

The news brought honking horns and thumbs-up signs from motorists who saw Barnicle at a news conference outside the Globe offices.

The dispute began when the Boston Herald reported Aug. 5 about similarities between jokes in Barnicle's Aug. 2 column and Carlin's best-selling book BrainDroppings. Barnicle said the jokes were given to him by two friends and he had not even read the book.

The Globe suspended Barnicle for a month without pay the same day as the Herald report, but Storin demanded his resignation later in the day after learning Barnicle had recommended the Carlin book on television in June.

Barnicle refused to resign, and the matter was not resolved until after Storin's return from a vacation in Italy on Monday.

The call for Barnicle's resignation had triggered an outpouring of support on the Internet and on radio. Don Imus urged listeners to contact the Globe on behalf of Barnicle, a frequent contributor to his syndicated radio show.

Barnacle, 54, said after saving his job Tuesday: "I apologized to Matt, to the publisher ... for putting the newspaper in this terribly awkward position due to my own personal sloppiness."

When Barnicle returns from his suspension, editors will work more closely with him, Storin said. Storin also said Barnicle will reduce his outside work, such as his appearances on several TV shows.

Storin said some staffers will be angry that Barnicle, who is white, is still with the paper while Smith, who is black, was ousted. But Storin said Barnicle's errors were far less serious and fell into a gray area.

"I never believed that he opened the book and took passages out," Storin said. "It still was, in my opinion, very sloppy reporting."

A former speechwriter for Robert F. Kennedy, Barnicle is known as the voice of the working man. His pieces both in print and on television are often biting.

Written by Alison Fitzgerald