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Globe's Kevin Cullen suspended for three months for his big mouth after Marathon bombings, not his columns
By adamg on Fri, 06/15/2018 - 6:39pm
The Globe self reports that the suspension is without pay - and that he will also be barred from doing any interviews with other media outlets for several months after that.
In reviews of both six years of columns and statements he made to other media outlets and journalism educators after the bombing, experts brought in by the Globe - Kathleen Carroll and Tom Fiedler - said they could find no Barnicle or Patricia Smith like problems with the main body of Cullen's work.
But in addition to a serious mistake in a post-Marathon column in which he claimed Martin Richard's father ran the Marathon that day - for which neither he nor the Globe ever apologized - Cullen's comments in interviews with other media outlets and in a talk before journalism professors could raise troubling questions about his veracity, in particular one Marathon story they said he simply made up.
And now we come to what is the most troubling episode - what to make of Mr. Cullen’s long and dramatic tale, told four months after the intensity of the bombing week to an audience of journalism educators. This is the narrative of the deputy fire chief handing Mr. Cullen his cell phone on the night of the bombing and urging him to help persuade a troubled firefighter on the other end of the phone to leave his home and come join them for a drink.
It is clear from interviews with the firefighters Mr. Cullen has cited that the episode simply did not happen. Mr. Cullen’s answer to our questions about it - that he does not remember telling that story - doesn’t change the fact that he did, as the C-SPAN video attests.
The fact that Mr. Cullen did not himself seek and review that video, easily found, raised questions for us about how seriously he takes the inevitable conclusion that the story he told is a complete fabrication.
Carroll and Fiedler said that while they found fault with his column earlier this year that could be read to seem like he was right at the bombing scene when he was actually nowhere near it, they said it was more an issue of style than outright lying - he was using a common columnist trope of trying to bring himself and his readers closer to the story, but they said he never outright said he was at the finish line.
It was that column that sparked the Globe's decision to suspend him with pay and bring in outside journalism experts to look at his work, after WEEI's Kirk Minihane ripped into him for seeming to claim to be right there when the bombs exploded.
Review of Cullen's Marathon work.
Review of Cullen's columns between 2012 and 2018.
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Comments
I was tired and drunk...
Mike Barnicle should have tried that defense.
Cullens credibility is shot and I don't know why they didn't just cut him loose.
Everybody LIES
I tell my spouse every day he is gorgeous and I love him and that he's a great lover :)
#Metoo
Not in writing, they don't
Different standards if it's written.
Why do I get the feeling...
you're Hilary Sargent?
Disability laws?
It's interesting that he says he was tired and drinking. Is there a possible alcohol issue that the Globe is taking into account in deciding to suspend him rather than fire him? The union is already planning to grieve this so whatever the paper does, it will have to look reasonable to an arbitrator or down the road, perhaps, a judge. How bad would it look for the paper that is always advocating against jailing drug addicts to terminate someone with an alcohol issue?
If the claim is that being drunk led him to fabricate a story...
...then the dude has no business being a reporter.
Stolen valor isn't a good look.
Just like all the asshats who've claimed to be at the WTC.
He should be fired. "I was drunk and made shit up" is no excuse in any profession, LEAST of all his.
Just A Thought
Score another one for the anti-Boston grown crowd at the Globe.
Did Kevin screw up? Maybe. However, I like his writing though. I look for his byline in the paper above others. 99 44/100% of the time he is on the money.
McGrory, now the editor, but once a columnist, has been under attack for his alleged misconduct.
Cullen grew up on Malden, McGrory who grew up in Weymouth. In the past; Barnacle grew up in Fitchburg got into trouble. All got into "trouble" for things. Remember they are or were "columnists", not reporters when they were called out. All three had a writing style that connected to Boston neighborhoods over the Back Bay, Brookline, Weston, or Wellesley. McGrory gave us the famous phrase "Rhymes With Gingham" and I will be forever grateful for that. Barnacle got caught stealing from George Carlin. It was lazy and stupid and a career was thrown away for a while. He also owned up to it and the story about the New Orleans lady with legs up to her ears.
Shirley Leung, not Boston grown, has enough chamber of commerce rewritten press releases that would make most people blanche. Yet she still has a byline.
The 1980's gave a great joke in the newspaper business that I think Alex Beam once put out there was how would newspapers cover the end of the world. The New York Post would be "Michael Jackson and Billions Killed in Atomic Holocaust" The Globe would print "World Ends, Women and Minorities Adversely Affected"
I think the Globe chooses favorites on whom to punish and whom not to call out based on a deep seeded bias against people who happen to have Irish ancestry. It is just a thought. I've been reading the paper since I was a kid. Daddy Globe still has a bias, especially against Dorchester, or at least a bias against Dorchester until it got doggie washes and pajama brunches. I would cancel my subscription but if I bought the Herald I think my credit rating would go down.
I hope Cullen, despite being a ManU fan, wins his arbitration and gets back to what he does best.
Please continue to whitewash
the Barnicle debacle. Barnicle got caught being a plagiarist, plain and simple. He is a scumbag who I used to watch daily take breakfast at the Ritz Cafe, then have the valet bring his SUV to the Newbury curb so he could run off and tell specious tales of the downtrodden for people who didn't really give a fuck.
So he gets bagged, he slinks off for a small while like Imus, then, because he's now from Lincoln and married to Ann Finucaine, bigwig at BoA and lo and behold, Mike is now on the shitshow that calls itself Morning Joke and that plagiarism is just a "mistake". Fuck that and fuck Cullen. He should have been fired for this and it's just more old boy nonsense at the Globe.
And "anti-Irish"? Are you serious?
Nice Potty Fingers
I tried to rationally spell out my feelings on the matter, you, not so much.
And yes, The Globe has had a huge anti-Irish America bias in the editorial department for decades.
On the plus side
It's a jobs program for Irish Americans in the Sports dept. where Shaugnessey has been protected for decades by Sullivan. '
And the literally hundreds of pressmen, drivers
and various forms of technical support that the Irish populations of Southie and Dorchester have provided as employees of the anti Irish Globe.
And as far as the editorial department, I like to save my enmity for the fact that the editorial department of the paper that wouldn't shut the fuck up about their Spotlight series on racism in this town is still all white.
And potty fingers? Really? I write like I speak. Deal with it or don't.
Brian Riccio, well said.
Brian Riccio, well said. We rarely agree on much but you nailed it here on these fraudulent columnists. I questioned Cullen's version of events right after the marathon and then I was attacked here.
The funny thing, the heart of police work is in the "patrol division" (men and women in police cars) and the heart of the fire department is in "fire suppression" (men and women in fire trucks). Both sides wear a uniform and drive marked vehicles. Easily identified and approached if a reporter wanted to.
It's incredibly easy for a reporter or columnist to ask, "officer, may I talk to you after work about this incident, coffee or a beer on me?" Cops and jakes like to vent, especially on the media's dime. Even the Herald reporters still have an expense account.
So it was easily identifiable to me, (confirmed by two or three phone calls after the marathon) that Cullen's "award winning" material was nonsense. Cullen pretending to have inside sources was the worst of it. The story needed no embellishment. The fact that it took half a decade for the Globe to acknowledge is equally scandalous. The Pulitzer should be returned or revoked, whatever the procedure is when falsehoods are revealed.
Hey Fishy
I heard Col. Mustard offed Professor Plum with the candlestick in the study. Would you look into that for us while you are at it.?
Shirley Leung bashing
You have the right to disagree with Shirley Leung. But why should she lose her column? She hasn't fabricated anything. She hasn't plagiarized. She isn't accused of "misconduct." All you come up with is that she might often agree with the Chamber of Commerce, but what is wrong with that - for an opinion writer? Leung writes well and enthusiastically defends her opinions. She is doing her job well - whether or not you or I agree with her opinions.
Bullshit
Leung is nothing more than a glorified PR person for any developer or CEO that needs a good ass kissing. She has even admitted to me personally that she can live with me calling her a shill, so there's that.
And her job is?
You do realize that she writes in the business section. Grab any paper in America that has a business section (the Wall Street Journal is not included, since that's all they do.) There is always a columnist that parrots the views of the Chamber of Commerce.
Of course, you can feel free to ignore her incessant columns about gender equity in the workforce (specifically the board rooms) and the need for major Boston corporations to come through in civic endeavours like was done in the 1990s and before. We'll just pretend she never wrote those.
Thanks!!
I will!!!
Steve Bailey was an excellent
Steve Bailey was an excellent business columnist at the Globe, and no one would ever call him a shill for CEOs. He had a real voice, a real following and cared deeply about the city. His columns were written to inform.
Shirley, by contract, writes about things that provide her unfettered access to John Fish and Jack Conners.
Em
John Fish and Jack Conners were beloved in the Globe’s business section for decades. Leung is just continuing the tradition in that regard. The key difference is that she writes regularly about women. Did Bailey do that?
David Warsh was superb
David Warsh was a superb Globe business columnist.
Not the Boston Globe
>>The Globe would print "World Ends, Women and Minorities Adversely Affected"
What I most remember from the parody edition of the Globe back in the early 80s was the headline about a nuclear attack on New York City:
Main headline: "Hub Man Dies in Nuclear Holocaust."
Sub heading: "Millions of others also die."
Also a supposed letter to the editor from Dapper O'Neill complaining about an article discussing him that said that "The lights are on, but nobody's home." He was supposedly complaining about how his method for defending against burglars had been revealed and made ineffective.
Lots of other good stuff. Wish I knew whatever happened to my copy.
--gpm
"Did Kevin screw up? Maybe."
Maybe? MAYBE!? He blatantly lied several times and used his fabrication of events that happened that day for his OWN benefit. Get a clue, please sir.
Cullen's lies pointed out by me, hours after marathon column
What boggled the mind in the hours and days after the Boston Marathon terrorist attack, nobody other than Cullen was mentioning that Bill Richard had run the marathon that day and young Martin had run out to the finish line to congratulate him just prior to the explosion. If I recall, nobody (other than me) called him on it at that time. In fact I was criticized here for asking if Cullen was lying.
Adam can decide whether or not to pull up my comments at that time, but a simple search of marathon finishers that day (and later the Richard family decided to send out a spokesman) confirmed that Bill Richard hadn't run that day. The story was bogus, even to an unpaid, armchair observer.
I knew a couple of (real) first responders at the scene and both told me Cullen's story was untrue. Meanwhile, the Globe accepted the Pulitzer Prize. Even WGBH media critic Dan Kennedy mentioned on "Beat the Press" that Cullen "captured the pulse of the city after the Marathon." Now Cullen will be back. Forgive me for losing any remaining confidence in the Globe.
People still reading the globe?
most educated, worldly people stopped reading the globe when they decided where tom brady vacations is an important news story.
If you go to their website right now, there is a story about sportsball...by david shagnessy or something. i think he lives in the burbs.
Go Philly Eagles. Go news organizations that report on important topics and stories...like U-Hub.
Mike Barnicle anyone?
Just sayin'.