BOSTON, March 8 (UPI) -- The Boston Herald has hired controversial columnist Mike Barnicle, whose stormy departure from the Boston Globe riveted its New England readership.
Barnicle, who resigned from the Globe five years ago after a quarter century of feisty writing, has been working at the New York Daily News, among other things, the Herald reported Monday.
"There is nothing quite like reaching out to the public through a regular newspaper column," said Barnicle.
"For me, Boston has everything a writer could want and I'm looking forward to connecting with Herald readers every Tuesday and Thursday."
Barnicle, 60, departed the Globe in August 1998 after engaging in a tumultuous battle to save his job that began when the Herald revealed that some jokes in a Barnicle column resembled those in a 1997 George Carlin book, "BrainDroppings."
He resigned two weeks later after he was unable to verify the facts contained in an Oct. 8, 1995, column about two children being treated for cancer at Children's Hospital, the Globe said.
