Barnicle: What an ass. He's been given a second (third?) chance after his career as a creative non-fiction columnist imploded, yet now he takes a gratuitous swipe at those who dare take to the Web to express their views and share what they know.

Yep, the blogosphere is awash with chatter, and maybe it's hard to sort wheat from chaff. However, Barnicle himself stands as the ultimate example of why we need other outlets for public expression. He's the prototypical Boston Blowhard who keeps getting gigs. We've heard enough from him.

God bless the bloviators!

By Steve M on Wed, 01/21/2009 - 10:06am.

Barnicle is just upset because if we read each other's opinions, there's less time in the day to read or listen to his drivel.

God bless the bloviators - especially the unpaid ones - we bloviate because we care - not because we get a paycheck.

PS - adam what's a "qaz" - it was the second word in my captcha - maybe we should all make it a point to learn to speak captcha

Qaz

By adamg on Wed, 01/21/2009 - 10:33am.

The captcha makes up words - less chance of it being cracked with a dictionary attack.

ah google

By KellyJMF on Wed, 01/21/2009 - 1:56pm.

There is a Trojan virus by that name.

Barnicle's sartorial brain farts

By Anonymous on Wed, 01/21/2009 - 10:24am.

Beside being a hypocritical ass and somewhat incoherent in his point about "self-important" bloggers and talk radio call-ins who "think they're entitled to their own opinion", do you'd think a guy getting paid to be on TV could wear a tie and jacket like every other male guest and host. But no.

Barnicle is wearing the clothes he raked the yard in last November. Black shirt with no collar (another sartorial brain fart), khakis pants and docksiders. What do you want to bet he's wearing white athletic socks? Oh shit. He is.

Check it out at the :59 second mark on this video. The fashion lady who was talking about Michelle Obama's dress is mortified. "That should not be on television!!" Barnacle laughs it off. What an amateur hack.

Barnicle should not be on television. Hey Barnacle, act like you've been somewhere.

God forbid someone look like

By ShadyMilkMan on Wed, 01/21/2009 - 12:08pm.

God forbid someone look like a normal person on tv.

Ya know there used to be a time when politics and the polical process (pundits included) was full of people who didnt seem to care if they had white socks on with a suit, or were not dressed fully to the nines all the time. They used to say DC was Hollywood for ugly people, so what are the rest of us supposed to do now that Hollywood is hanging out in DC?

The black outfit suits him

By adamg on Wed, 01/21/2009 - 10:43am.

Makes him look like he's got James Bond tied down on a table with a laser beam aimed at him.

It's too bad, however, it's James Bond and not the idiot next to Barnicle arguing the president doesn't deserve Secret Service protection.

so, to recap,

By aging cynic on Wed, 01/21/2009 - 12:11pm.

1. Guy starts out as an elevator operator in Washington, courtesy of political hack friends.
2. Guy then proceeds to parlay his brother's job in homicide unit of BPD into leads on stories.
3. Gutsy street kid from Lincoln is nowhere to be found when Don Imus has a brain fart of his own or when George Carlin dies, (his career is homage to Carlin, shall we say?)
4. Guy makes an obscenely high salary pontificating about people with whom he and his bank executive wife socialize. (Somehow Bank of America's bailout money is just hunky dory. Go figure.)

Is this a great country or what?

Nobody noticed he said

By cscott on Wed, 01/21/2009 - 12:38pm.

Nobody noticed he said "anonymous bloggers"? I've heard him on this rant before and he seemed to be mad about people who take pot-shots from the web without revealing who they are. Kinda like people having flame wars here with commenters named anonymous. As I said I've heard him riff on this topic before. He did have some good points about how people on blogs and other interest based website live a bubble where they avoid news they disagree with, as opposed to people who watch the news and read the paper and are thus exposed to things out of their niche.

the difference

By david_yamada on Wed, 01/21/2009 - 2:07pm.

Okay, that's a fair point, but isn't it the case that Barnicle is conflating "bloggers" and "commenters"? Truly anonymous bloggers, i.e., folks who either host a blog or contribute front page posts, are much fewer than anonymous commenters, esp. the flame throwing variety.

The gist of Barnicle's wrath is that there are all these unworthy folks out there sharing what's on their mind. Why is he so threatened by that? Can't he understand that mere mortals can sort through the substance and the flames?

I think it still gets back to the fact that he resents that we can find all the commentary we need without listening to him.

Mike Barnicle insults "self-important" bloggers

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