A meeting between the Boston Globe’s embattled star columnist, Mike Barnicle, and publisher Benjamin B. Taylor failed to shed any new details on the fate of the writer, who was asked to resign earlier this week.
In a statement Friday, Globe executives said Taylor and Alfred S. Larkin, vice president and assistant to the publisher, met with Barnicle at an off-site location for about an hour. “We consider it a private meeting between the parties, and have no further comment at this time,” a spokesman said.
Barnicle, a 25-year veteran of the broadsheet, was asked to resign Wednesday after his editors discovered that a column he wrote Sunday included some jokes that were similar to those in a book written by comedian George Carlin. Barnicle said that he hadn’t read the book and was given the jokes by an unidentified friend. The writer was first suspended for a month. But a news video clip later showed Barnicle recently commenting on the Carlin book. The paper’s editor, Matthew V. Storin, then asked for his resignation.
