The Star News Network, the constellation of nine state-focused news sites hired veteran Washington reporter and editor Neil W. McCabe as the network’s national political editor, in its next step in the 50-state buildout.
“I met Neil when he was at Breitbart News covering Capitol Hill and the two of us ran the Breitbart-Gravis polling project during the 2016 presidential election,” said The Star News Network’s CEO and Editor-in-Chief Michael Patrick Leahy.
“For the last year and a half, Neil has served as our national political correspondent, and with this move, we have a critical piece of our strategy in place,” Leahy said. “As our eyes and ears in Washington, Neil has broken huge stories that have been amplified by Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity, and Lou Dobbs, as well as CNN – now we want more.”
Leahy said McCabe will work out of The Star News Network’s Washington office, but will also travel out to work stories specific to the different news outlets: The Tennessee Star, The Virginia Star, The Georgia Star News, The Ohio Star, The Michigan Star, The Minnesota Sun, The Florida Capitol Star, The Wisconsin Daily Star and The Arizona Sun Times.
“In this role, Neil joins our senior leadership team and goes from being Star News talent to mentoring and coaching up our other fine journalists,” he said.
“Another factor is Neil’s reputation. He commands respect from the players on the national stage because they understand he is after a story, but he always plays it straight – they might not like what they read – but, they know he plays it straight,” Leahy said.
“You can see it in how he is treated by the rest of the Washington press corps,” he said. “He has even been quoted by reporters for The New York Times, The Washington Post and Reuters for their stories on politics and the media.”
Christina Botteri, The Star News Network’s chief technology officer and executive editor, said she McCabe brings with him the benefits of his experiences in Washington, Boston and in the military.
“When I talk to Neil about a potential story, he is able to access his various networks of contacts and his own varied background to bring a fresh and tactile approach to a narrative,” Botteri said.
“More than anything else, Neil is a storyteller, he gets people and he loves giving them a platform,” she said.
McCabe, an Army Reserve public affairs NCO and a Bronze Star veteran of the Iraq War, said joining The Star News Network is the logical step for his career.
“I love covering national politics and The Star News Network is the perfect vehicle for me to keep doing what I love,” he said.
“My goal is always to provide the reader with the comprehensive information and context regarding an issue or event or personality, so they have the information they need to make their decisions,” the native of Franklin, Massachusetts said.
“What I never wanted to do was drive-by journalism that feeds our drive-by politics,” he said. “Mike and Christina and the team at The Star News Network get that and they are building the quality news operation the country needs.”
Before coming to The Star News Network, McCabe was a Capitol Hill and Washington reporter for One America News, where he interviewed both President Donald J. Trump and Vice President Michael R. Pence, as well as producing news specials featuring Rudolph W.L. Giuliani, Sen. R. Edward “Ted” Cruz Jr. (R.-Texas), and investigating Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D.-Mass.) and President Joseph R. Biden Jr. The special “Biden Family Corruption” was OAN’s highest-rated special and was repeated at least 10 times on the network.
McCabe, a Media Fellow at the Gold Institute for International Strategies, also reported for Breitbart News, Human Events, Townhall and The Washington Examiner. His 2013 e-book “The Not So Friendly Skies” examined how the American airline industry went from deregulation in the late 1970s to come full circle to the highly regulated, highly taxed industry it is today.
Prior to reporting from the nation’s capital McCabe worked as a reporter in Boston for The Pilot, Boston’s Catholic paper, as well as the editor of both The Somerville News and The (North Cambridge, Mass.) Alewife.
A veteran of the Coast Guard and the Army Reserve, McCabe served 15 months, 2009-2010, in Iraq as a combat historian conducting more than 150 oral histories interviewed for the Center for Military History, in addition taking thousands for photos and other documentations of the last months of Operation Iraqi Freedom. His other Army Reserve mobilizations include tours at XVIII Airborne Corps, the Office of the Chief of Army Reserve, the Army Reserve Medical Command and 1st Theater Sustainment Command’s operation command post at Camp Arifjan, Kuwait.
In addition to his Bronze Star, McCabe’s other awards include two Meritorious Service Medals and three Coast Guard Achievement Medals.
McCabe lives in Silver Spring, Maryland with his wife of eight years, where they attend St. Andrew the Apostle Church. He is a member of the National Press Club, the National Writers Union, the OSS Society and the Foreign Area Officers Association.
