Aaah, Barnicle

I'm one of those Bostonians who enjoys reading commentary about former Boston Icon/current embarrassment Mike Barnicle far more than anything written by him. Dan Kennedy, who's been on a groove since the election year started, gives us a mere nugget info in his latest column (this link goes to page two, but you'll have to scroll about a third of the way down).

It mostly concerns the Boston Herald's dissatisfaction with Barnicle as a new columnist. But still, there was much to ponder. Most of all (for me, anyway), this email response from Barnicle to Kennedy's email inquiries, quoted here in it's entirety:

"Ordinarily, I might try to be more helpful to someone working on a story but I'm told that every time you've written about me over the past decade it's never been good."

It's nice to know that not only are there yahoos who defend people like Barnicle, saying it's more important to be entertaining than honest, but also the fact that once you've made it as a media figure, you don't even have to write your own name into a Google bar and find out what someone's written about you.

You simply ask an assistant. And when that assistant goes off, comes back and starts to inform you that the journalist asking for quotes wrote one of the pieces instrumental in getting you fired, you just cut him off, tell him to go away, and you phone in a reply the same way you phone in your column.

Modern Journalism! It's easier without facts!