The perception of Somerville to those who are not from here is from bad connotations going back years and years. And quite frankly, when will it ever stop?  Monikers like ‚ÄúSlummerville‚Äù are still thrown about by ignorant asses who do little more than drive through here on their way to work in Boston or back to the suburbs.

This city is more alive than it ever has been and has more going for it than 95 percent of the rest of the cities and towns that make up the commonwealth.  The Boston-based media outlets talk about the dirty politics, crooked politicians and the Winter Hill Gang like we all live in an episode of The Sopranos. Give it a rest for God‚Äôs sake.

This is not the same city it was 20 or 30 years ago. It really isn’t the same city that most outsiders ever thought it was back then or now. But like everything in life, perceptions influence definition in the real world.

If you sit back and look at what goes on in this city, especially within the very local media, you get a great snapshot of how life is here.  Pick up a newspaper or go to our Web site or even just take a look around almost anywhere in the city and you get an idea of how good a place this is to live and work.

Find a dead body on Broadway, and the Boston-based media outlets, merely because of the lack of information on the scene, decide to fashion a story out of nothing. Reporting that the body was found in Winter Hill, the home of Whitey Bulger’s “notorious” Winter Hill Gang is so misleading and sensational it’s not even funny.

Unfortunately, that is the name of the game in the world of big news media ‚Äì if you have nothing to report, find something to report.  Thank God our local news outlets and online news and event sources don‚Äôt subscribe to that kind of sensationalism.

The entire City of Somerville deserves an apology not only from Channel 5, but any other media outlet that decided to sensationalize the death of someone here just to make some exciting news and purposely perpetuate myths and unfounded stereotypes.