Welcome back, Barnicle

On the April 25 installment of Beat the Press, in a segment on recent departures from the Boston Globe, ex-Globie Mike Barnicle had some harsh words for the New York Times Co., which owns the paper. He described the Times Co. as "journalistic car strippers." And he accused the Times Co. of turning the Globe into "the Herald with more people."

You might think that the Herald--which occasionally publishes Barnicle's work--would take umbrage at this description, which is pretty clearly predicated on the idea that the Herald sucks. And maybe the Herald brain trust did. Still, Barnicle is back in the paper today, offering his thoughts on Ted Kennedy's grim diagnosis.

On another Herald-Kennedy note: given today's boosterish Herald cover, and the paper's uncharacteristic efforts (scroll down) to weed out offensive reader comments posted online, it'll be interesting to see what--if anything--noted Kennedy hater Howie Carr says about the senator in his next column.