I Was Just Thinking...

By Jack E. White

I was just thinking...that without the factor of race, last week's big dustup over Boston Globe columnist Mike Barnicle would have been seen as much ado about nothing. The only reason anyone cared whether Barnicle, a white male, had recycled--without attribution--a few one-liners from comedian George Carlin was that only a few weeks ago another Globe columnist, Patricia Smith, a black female, had been forced to resign for making up stories.

Nobody asked me, but I think Barnicle's misdeed was a journalistic misdemeanor, not a felony like Smith's. But since the problem of the 20th century is the problem of the color line, some folks thought the Barnicle and Smith cases ought to be treated identically. When the Globe's editor, Matt Storin, rescinded his demand for Barnicle's resignation and instead suspended him without pay for two months, these critics saw a racial double standard. They figured that if Barnicle had been judged by the content of his character, not the color of his skin, he would have been given his walking papers. Not me. I say that if the glove doesn't fit, you must acquit. In Barnicle's case, the punishment fit the crime. He should go and sin no more.

Hey, call me Ishmael, but I sympathize with Barnicle; it's doggone hard to write a column without borrowing ideas, and easy to forget to credit them. The way the Globe dealt with him was appropriate. Yet those who see a double standard have a point. The main reason Barnicle was able to hang on to his job is that a powerful network of whites leaped to his defense. Radio talk show host Don Imus, NBC Washington bureau chief Tim Russert, Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen and CNN's Larry King minimized the seriousness of Barnicle's transgressions. Staples, the big office-supply chain, hinted that it might yank its advertising if Barnicle left the Globe. The pressure gave Barnicle time to make his case for leniency and moved Storin to find a face-saving way to back down.

That's what friends are for. But even as we build a bridge to the 21st century, it's hard to imagine a black, Hispanic or Asian journalist getting into the same kind of trouble and being able to call on that kind of support without being accused of pleading for special treatment because of race. If Barnicle were black and, say, Jesse Jackson had spoken up for him, it would have unleashed a torrent of complaints that affirmative action has led to the hiring of less-qualified minorities and a diminution in journalistic standards. That's what Howell Raines, editor of the New York Times' editorial page, was getting at when he wrote that "the historical bottom line of this event will be that a white guy with the right connections got pardoned for offenses that would have taken down a minority or female journalist." Note the attribution: I wouldn't dare borrow anything from Mr. Raines, much less relegate him to a footnote.

Sources: (1)Mike Barnicle. (2)William Shakespeare. (3)Jimmy Cannon. (4)W.E.B. DuBois. (5)Martin Luther King Jr. (6)Johnnie L. Cochran Jr. (7)Cicero. (8)Jesus. (9)Herman Melville. (10)Carole Bayer Sager and Burt Bacharach. (11)William Jefferson Clinton.