As a "muckraking" investigative journalist and media analyst, Nobile has generated controversy by his criticisms of a variety of public figures, including sexologist Shere Hite,[9] talk radio host Don Imus, historians Doris Kearns Goodwin and David McCullough, and President Harry S.
[9] In 1990 he debated Judith Reisman on the work of Alfred Kinsey in an appearance on The Phil Donahue Show, where his writing on "positive incest" arose.
In 1993, after the death of author Alex Haley, Nobile criticized his noted novel, Roots (1976), in an article in The Village Voice, calling it a "hoax" and suggesting his Pulitzer Prize should be rescinded.
[13] Clarence Page responded in the Chicago Tribune that Nobile was missing the point of the effect of Haley's work and noted that the author had always said parts were fiction.
Nobile claimed that Jackie Kennedy Onassis suppressed publication of his book on the president's "Don Juanism" while she was an editor at Doubleday.
As a result of Nobile's "whistleblowing", the Education Department assigned the case to Louis N. Scarcella, a retired police detective who then worked for the school system.
The result of his 23-month investigation was a 67-page 2007 report that, according to The New York Times, referred to Nobile as "a subpar teacher with poor evaluations who wrongly accused Ms. Capra of engineering a cheating scheme because she had given him a negative review that could have led to his firing.
Condon's findings blamed investigator Scarcella for producing a "deeply flawed report" with "no credible evidence" and being "biased and overtly influenced by Mr. Nobile", who was at the time the union chapter leader.
[19] Shortly before the second Cobble Hill report was published, Nobile was reassigned to administrative duties related to an investigation of alleged corporal punishment of two students.