[5] The paper and its columnists won praise with their coverage of the political and social upheaval that roiled Boston after the city instituted a mandatory, court-ordered school desegregation plan in the mid-1970s.

In his Pulitzer Prize-winning book Common Ground: A Turbulent Decade in the Lives of Three American Families (1986), J. Anthony Lukas wrote that Barnicle gave voice to the Boston residents who the policy had angered.

Lukas singled out Barnicle's column ("Busing Puts Burden on Working Class, Black and White" published in The Boston Globe, October 15, 1974) and interview with Harvard psychiatrist and author Robert Coles as one of the defining moments in the coverage that helped earn the paper the 1975 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service.

His columns mixed pointed criticism of government and bureaucratic failure with personal stories that exemplified people's everyday struggles to make a living and raise a family.

Tapping into a rich knowledge of local and national politics, Barnicle had unique takes on the ups and downs of figures including Sen. Ted Kennedy, Sen. John Kerry, and longtime Congressional Speaker of the House Thomas Tip O'Neill, as well as Boston mayors Kevin White, Ray Flynn, and Tom Menino.

In subsequent years, Barnicle's coverage expanded as he reported from Northern Ireland on the conflict and resolution there to the beaches of Normandy, from where he wrote about the commemorations of World War II veterans.

The first column, published on August 2, 1998, consisted of more than 80 humorous observations and included "a series of one-liners that had been lifted from... George Carlin's best-selling 1997 book, Brain Droppings.

[10] Carlin later discussed the incident in a speech to the National Press Club, saying, "Someone changed each of the jokes just enough, they thought, to disguise them – that part didn't work – and what they did was make them all worse.

When The Boston Globe could not locate the people who had not been publicly identified because they had died as well, Barnicle continued to insist the story was true but obtained indirectly from a nurse.

"[14] The magazine Boston began a 'Barnicle Watch' in the early 1990s to try to track down other dubious Barnicle sources to which Globe Editor John Driscoll responded: "He's visible, he's on the street, he's talking to real people.

[15] He and Kevin Cullen had reported that Prudential Financial had issued a check for $480,000 as the life insurance payout for his wife's policy, offering a potential motive for her husband's decision to kill her.

[citation needed] Barnicle has since become a staple on MSNBC,[20] including on Morning Joe as well as on specials on breaking news topics and presidential elections.

Barnicle has received many honors for his work, including the Pete Hamill Award for Journalistic Excellence from the Glucksman Ireland House at New York University.