I was amused recently when I saw former Boston Globe columnist Mike Barnicle offering commentary on MSNBC about the death of Sen. Ted Kennedy. He told a touching story of a period in Barnicle's life when he said he was at rock bottom, personally and professionally, and he was being hounded by the press, on the front pages of the New York Times. (The details of why this was happening were not mentioned) So he retreated to his home on Cape Cod.

While sitting there contemplating his defunct career and wondering if he'd ever work again, a knock came on the door. It was Ted, who offered support by supposedly telling Barnicle, "No one knows how to hide out better than a Kennedy."

I say "supposedly" because I find it hard to believe anything that Barnicle says. That's because I had a bit part in the drama more than 10 years ago that resulted in Barnicle being fired from the Globe for plagiarism.

It was a Sunday afternoon in August, 1998 when I got a call from a friend who had been at the beach reading a book he'd taken out from the library. It was George Carlin's Brain Droppings, a collection of amusing observations and jokes in the classic Carlin style. As my friend was reading the book, he was overcome with an incredible sense of deja vu. Just that morning he had read Barnicle's column in the Globe, entitled I was just thinking....and it contained some of the same jokes. Not just similar jokes, but eight or 10 jokes and observations that were exactly the same as the book's, only they were presented to leave the reader thinking that these were Barnicle's observations. Hey, the title of the column was called, I was just thinking...

I called my brother who was then an editor at the Globe. That led to several calls and e-mails with some of the Globe's top brass comparing the Carlin book with Barnicle's column. Everyone expressed astonishment. Could Barnicle really be that stupid?

On Monday, Barnicle was hauled in to explain himself and he offered various excuses. He claimed he'd never read the book (or never even heard of it, according to some accounts), but had been given the jokes by a bartender or a friend or a reader via email. The stories changed every time Barnicle opened his mouth. And he told a lot of stories, mounting a big PR offensive with his pals on TV and radio talk shows defending his position. Fired for retelling a few jokes? C'mon.

The Globe gave him a one-month suspension, but that quickly changed when a video appeared showing Barnicle on a local TV show six weeks before his offending article holding the Carlin book in his hand and recommending it to his viewers saying, "There's a yuk on every page." Barnicle still maintained he hadn't read it - but how recommending a book to viewers that he hadn't actually read made things OK was lost on a lot of critics.

The Globe was quickly losing patience, first asking for Barnicle's resignation, then changing it to a three-month suspension. The newspaper went from being embarrassed to looking foolish. Then came a notice from the editors at Reader's Digest who a few years earlier had considered reprinting one of Barnicle's columns. a tear jerker about two families with critically ill children. Only problem was the magazine's fact checkers couldn't confirm a word of it. Not one. Barnicle claimed he had gotten the information from a nurse at a local hospital, but he couldn't remember her name. That did it. Barnicle was done.

After his departure, there was an outpouring of other Barnicle misdeeds, 25 years of plagiarism and outright fabrications. He had cribbed relentlessly from Chicago columnist Mike Royko. He had claimed he helped write the screenplay for the movie The Candidate starring Robert Redford (not true, according to the real screenwriter). Several lawsuits came to light in which the Globe had to pay out tens of thousands of dollars to settle claims by angry victims of Barnicle's columns who claimed facts and quotes were made up. My favorite was this Globe correction from 1985:

Correction: Because of reporting errors, it was erroneously stated in a Mike Barnicle column on Feb. 5 that a juvenile charged with robbery and attempted murder in a Dorchester shooting on Jan. 31 had in his possession at the time of his arrest a 'pocketful of .22 caliber bullets,' had a 'good, long' criminal record, was wanted for questioning in connection with two other recent armed robberies, and had been arraigned in Roxbury District Court as well as in Dorchester District Court.

Since his departure, Barnicle has resurrected himself as an "analyst" and sometimes host on MSNBC. But my question is why? This guy has zero credibility. I get the same willies when I see him on TV as when I see Oliver North or G. Gordon Liddy. Is there no shame in America anymore, or at least in the American news media? I'm all for redemption, but a 25 year career of sloppy, erroneous and fraudulent reporting doesn't just go away overnight. And remember, Barnicle has never, to my knowledge, ever copped to doing anything wrong. Hard to be forgiving when the person in question doesn't even think he needs forgiveness.

If the mainstream media ever wonders why their credibility among the American public has sunk lower than that of used car dealers, they should look no further than Mike Barnicle. Why not put people on TV with some integrity and credibility instead of a hack like him?