Third newspaper comes to city

By George P. Hassett and James Norton

Somerville now has three newspapers. Last week, The Powderhouse —- a “regular journal” covering West Somerville —- debuted with its first issue. The paper was eight pages, printed in black and white and gave prominent advertising and editorial space to progressive democrats running for city office.

The Powderhouse is owned and edited by Neil W. McCabe and funded, in part, by former lieutenant governor Thomas P. O’Neill III. O’Neill said he is one of three investors in the paper. In its first issue, the paper’s name is alternately spelled as one word and two. In an advertisement it is two words but at the top of its pages it is one. The West Somerville boulevard and square the paper shares its name with is spelled as Powder House.

McCabe was the editor of The Somerville News off and on from 2002 until 2005. He returned to the News for seven weeks in 2007 but was not the editor by March. He also owns and edits The Alewife, a monthly publication covering North Cambridge.

McCabe said the Powderhouse will be similar to the Alewife in style and voice. Reporters at the paper are not allowed to make first person analysis, observation or narrative but instead must rely heavily on attribution, he said. He said the market is ripe for a neighborhood journal like the Powderhouse.

“I think there is a niche there. The Somerville News and The Somerville Journal do a great job covering the entire city. We’re a neighborhood paper, it is like nano-journalism,” he said.

With The Alewife, McCabe attracted attention for his right wing endorsements and sparring with his competitor, The  Cambridge Chronicle. The two papers dueled endlessly on-line and in print over McCabe’s traffic arrest and The Alewife’s favorable coverage of Mayor Ken Reeves.

In the November 2006 edition of The Alewife, McCabe sparked a mutiny among the paper’s staff when he endorsed a slate of Republicans, compared stem-cell research to the work of Nazi doctor Josef Mengele and claimed pro-choice candidate Kerry Healey was just as willing to “kill babies” as her opponent Deval Patrick. The endorsements were written with the pronoun “we” but Alewife writers and reporters said they were never included in the discussion and vehemently disagreed with the choices and wording. Alewife columnist Roger Nicholson charged that McCabe used the monthly paper to push the agenda of the Republican Party and the Roman Catholic Church.

O’Neil, who describes himself as “a proud and lifelong” Democrat and served as lieutenant governor from 1975 to 1983, said McCabe’s conservative politics do not bother him.

“Neil’s politics do not have anything to do with the paper,” he said.

In the first edition of The Powderhouse, there is nothing in the advertisement or editorial sections indicating McCabe’s rabid Republican values. In fact, much space is given to candidates and office holders who belong to the decidedly liberal Progressive Democrats of Somerville (PDS). Ward 6 Alderman Rebekah Gewirtz, co-founder of PDS, has a large space on the front page congratulating the eight page newspaper on a “great publication.” And Rachel Heller, who is challenging Ward 7 Alderman Robert C. Trane and supported by PDS, is featured on page 2 with a long article in which she lays out her future plans, if elected. She also has an advertisement on page 3 touting her candidacy.

When asked why there was so much coverage of progressive democrats in the first issue of The Powderhouse, McCabe said, “Why are there so many progressives in West Somerville? If you run a paper in Japan, you have to cover the Japanese. If you run a paper in West Somerville, it is hard not to include progressives,” he said.

Nine months after his “Mengele” comments on stem cell research, McCabe got more attention when he landed on page 2 of his cross town rival, The Cambridge Chronicle, for his Aug. 20 arrest at 1:40 a.m. for being a habitual traffic offender. The Chronicle, which McCabe had criticized and challenged in print and on-line, wrote a 587-word piece on the arrest and called The Alewife “a neighborhood newsletter.” In the article’s closing sentences reporter Erin Smith wrote that McCabe had made The Alewife “a forum for criticism of the Cambridge Chronicle with much of its editorial material built around critiques of the news stories found in the Chronicle each week and attacks on the Chronicle staff.”

On their blog, Chronicle staff also attacked The Alewife as a paper that failed to ask elected officials tough questions and allowed politicians to “spin their way through” entire news stories.

McCabe also found controversy in his time with The Somerville News when, in May 2005 at the city’s Memorial Day parade, he refused a police officer’s request to take a sign down from The News’ boat in the event. The sign read, “This is not Frankie’s boat” a reference to Buildings and Grounds Superintendent Frank Santangelo who had recently been disciplined for storing his personal boat on city property. In a News article in which he quoted himself, McCabe said the order came from Mayor Joseph A. Curtatone. He eventually acquiesced to the officer’s request and took the sign down.   

Comments

[I love the skipper and naughty girls]

I love the skipper and the Red Sox! I wish the skipper kept his boat!

[Just another rag.....]

You know, it's pieces like this that cause intelligent people to develop a mistrust of, and lack of respect for,the media.
Good for Neil McCabe for creating a paper where '...Reporters...are not allowed to make first person analysis, observation or narrative;;;' Now if only some mainstream newspapers and television outlets would follow suit, we could actually get some news and not have to sift through the outlook of the media.
'...(McCabe)attracted attention for his right wing endorsements...'
Again, an interesting comment. Has the Somerville Journal, the Boston Globe, the New York Times ever attracted attention for their left wing endorsements? Why is this relevant to anything?
'...charged that McCabe used the monthly paper to push the agenda of the Republican Party and the Roman Catholic Church...'
And this differs HOW from they way the media tries to ram their agenda down our throats every day of the week??
'...McCabe’s rabid Republican values...'
Did you have a straight face when you typed that sentence? Are Republican values 'rabid' simply because they're not held by the Democrats? RABID: 'irrationally extreme in opinion or practice: furious or raging; violently intense: affected with or pertaining to rabies; mad.'
I used to think that the Somerville News was better than this!

[dashford]

Just another rag... asked if Republican values are 'rabid' simply because they're not held by the Democrats? Of course not. But using phrases like "killing babies" goes beyond just differing from Democrats' values. It's a pretty extreme position from which most Republicans would distance themselves, I suspect. Do you think McCabe's view is representative of mainstream Republican values?

[Just another rag....]

Dashford......I don't know or care if McCabe's views are representative of mainstream Republicans. I simply find it irrelevant.
And as far as the term 'killing babies'....do you know anything at all about partial birth adoption? Can you put a spin on that and come up with a term that describes it better? The euphemisms are what's truly comical: 'choice', 'terminate', etc.

[nobody]

I'm prochoice, but I don't try to pretend that abortion aren't horrible things that involve killing babies. That is literally what is happening.

[Jack Meofe]

"So today in West Somerville another Starbucks opening its doors to please all, God Bless Starbucks."

[Jack Meofe]

"So today in West Somerville another Starbucks opening its doors to please all, God Bless Starbucks."

[Jack Meofe]

"So today in West Somerville another Starbucks opening its doors to please all, God Bless Starbucks."

[Ron Newman]

that wasn't worth saying three times

[dashford]

Hey, Just another rag... if you "don't know or care" what mainstream Republican values are, then how can you criticize using the term "rabid," which you yourself point out means "extreme"? All these terms have no meaning if you don't have a reference point.

And if people want to have an intelligent debate that doesn't pit the baby-killers versus the Nazi pro-lifers, I'm all for it. But I'm sitting out the inflammatory stuff.

[powderhouse putz]

I can't wait to see what misguided stunt McCabe pulls next. Does O'Neill know who he is getting involved with?

[Derek]

Why is "regular journal" in quotes? Maybe you should visit http://quotation-marks.blogspot.com/

I thought the first issue was okay. It's not the NYT but I'll take as many views on local happenings as I can get.

[Ron Newman]

It's a direct quote from the newspaper's tagline on page 1:

"A regular journal covering the people and events in and around the neighborhoods of West Somerville"

I wish them success.

[Save yourself O'Neill]

Hey Tommy,

Do yourself a favor and distance yourself from this character. I caught this guy's act one night outside The Independent and let me tell you --- it ain't pretty. Not a bad guy, just a nut.

[McCabe is a lunatic, but...]

McCabe is a lunatic, this is indisputable. Notwithstanding, the attention you're giving him here is a little bizarre. If you spent half as much energy on real local issues there would be little green trains running through Magoun Square by now. Is the farm team jumping up and down over Neil McCabe too?

[Republicrat]

First of all, I am a big fan of the Somerville News. However, it is the silent majorty's opinion that abortion is bad, faith in God is good and deviant liberal behavior is bad. I would call Neil McCabe's views conservative rather than Republican because as you can see, most Republican candidates today are almost as liberal as the Dems. The Progressives are in the process of destroying this great nation. The promote nothing but moral decay, dependence on government and perversity. CHEERS!!!

[dashford]

Wow -- I would never be so presumptuous (and contradictory) as to claim to speak for the silent majority. And exactly how do you define "deviant liberal behavior"? I'm guessing you think that's a redundant phrase.

[Ron Newman]

If the majority are silent, how can they be said to have any opinion at all? This term has been a silly one ever since Richard Nixon put it into circulation in 1969,

[Election]

Silent majority = bunch of losers.

[Imux]

dashford, let me help here: "deviant liberal behavior" = PDS. Anyone who identifies himself/herself/itself with the PDS - and has actually read their platform and agrees with it - is a deviant, liberal.

Oh and yes.... once deviant was written there was no need to throw in liberal. It became redundant.

[Grog29]

Once the term "Progressive" is mentioned on any piece of mail I get before an election, the name is written down as a "do not vote for" candidate.

And I vote in EVERY ELECTION. EVERY.

[Election]

Another example of redundancy "Imux, the pathetic loser".

[Election]

I'm sure your vote will make a big difference this time.

[Grog29]

Heven't you been banned yet freak?

[Election]

Don't try hard to be so obvious in your id switches, Imux.

[Grog29]

I answered you in the illegal alien thread you loser.

You need Thorazine and a good banning.
Don't you work?

[Election]

Stop switching ids, Imux. Don't you have a job?

[Grog29]

I told you how to resolve your paranoia about multiple IDs by posters. By the way you should stop threatening posters here. You're on record of doing so. Write to the administrators to get the rules and to find out if anyone here is using multiple screennames. You'll sound like a fool but hey, what the hell. Cast out your demons.

You're demented. SSI???

No wonder illegals don't bother you. You don't pay for anything. Living off the system. Parasite.

[Election]

Imux you should stop sending threats of physical abuse to people on the internets, especially children and women. You have done so on multiple occasions and you are on record. Glad you are enjoying your welfare check.

[He's done it again]

Has anybody seen McCabe's latest snafu? Check out The Chronicle's story on his extortion racket (which his newspaper only seems to be a front for --- he basically says it himself) check it out. Good stuff.

[Still There]

Is this paper still in publication?