Tweety's substitute host...

[ecstatic]

Are they related? Can we keep him and send Tweety into early retirement?

[polichick]

1. They're just friends - Irish Catholic buddies.

[ryanmuegge]

4. I didn't realize that there were so many Irish Catholics in the elite press

until I started reading the Daily Howler.

[ecstatic]

9. OK. They seem to have the same accent too. nt

[polichick]

11. Chris is from Philly and Mike from Boston, but they do sound pretty similar.

[npincus]

2. really? I am not enjoying Mike Barnicle one bit.

Tweety has his moments.

[ecstatic]

8. From the little I've heard, he at least tried to be fair with Obama

and got on the media about their whining. :shrug:

[ErinBerin84]

3. let me guess...another one of the Nantucket Irish Catholic "mafia".

[Gabi Hayes]

5. just another run of the mill disgraced "journalist". got nailed for

plagiarism

perfect job for the typical stenographer masquerading as M$M journalist

he just took his notes directly from the work of others, rather than from republican party blast faxes

[Ian David]

6. You mean Barnicle the Plagiarist and story fabricator?

repeat offender
Boston Globe columnist Mike Barnicle's active imagination finally brings him down.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
BY TOM MASHBERG

BOSTON -- After narrowly escaping execution last week, Boston Globe columnist Mike Barnicle was finally forced to walk the plank today when it was revealed that he had made up yet another column, a 1995 tear-jerker about a black child and a white one who became friends when they were both hospitalized with cancer.

The veteran columnist was a favorite among journalism's old-boy network, as well as a major circulation draw, which is why the Globe continued to cut him slack for so long in the face of mounting evidence that he was a fabulist and plagiarist. Barnicle's pals in the national media like to paint him as a street scribe who boldly sets foot where J-school nancyboys daren't tread. But the truth is that Barnicle has been making it up and mailing it in from his manse in suburban Lincoln for 15 years. He turned the Globe into clown school by refusing to quit once he was caught lifting jokes from a George Carlin bestseller and then lying about it. While the newspaper's top brass fretted over what to do with their popular bad boy -- finally giving him a slap-on-the-wrist two-month suspension -- Barnicle turned Globe editor Matt Storin into a laughingstock just as the five-year anniversary of New York Times ownership of "the Glob" drew nigh.

But when an ex-Reader's Digest editor came forward this week, informing the Globe that the Digest had decided not to reprint Barnicle's 1995 weeper after they determined it was fabricated, it was finally all over for the columnist.

<snip>

For anyone who missed it, here's the slapstick sequence of events. On Aug. 2, Barnicle ran a column of 36 banal bon mots under the headline "I Was Just Thinking ..." (Example: "Someday I'd love to see the Pope appear on his balcony and announce the baseball scores.") On Aug. 5, the Herald pantsed Barnicle by printing a piece showing how he filched 10 of his 36 insipid paragraphs from Carlin's book "Brain Droppings." Much merriment ensued.

More:
http://www.salon.com/media/1998/08/20media.html

[DJ13]

7. Mike's not a bad host, he just tries (too hard) to be "balanced" to both sides

No one on MSNBC outside of Keith or Scarborough understand that a commentary show isnt meant to be balanced.

[Gabi Hayes]

10. you didn't see the show today, did you?

it was almost completely devoted to discussing Obama's presumptuousness

[DJ13]

14. Actually I did

Thats where the "tries too hard" part came into play.

I've seen him on other MSNBC shows, and he IS capable of coming across as an Obama supporter when he has to.

You guys have to remember that these hosts on MSNBC (outside of Keith and Scarborough) arent allowed to vary from the scripted slant they are told to represent.

They do as they're told.

[my3boyz]

12. I don't like him. He might as well bring the pom poms out and cheer for John McCain.

He still thinks McCain is the guy from 2000.

[Stop Cornyn]

13. I think Barnacle sucks (not that he's worse than Matthews, but hardly an improvement either)