Newspaper wars over immigration

A loyal reader sent us this note, which we found intriguing. The e-mail to us was sent from a Daily Planet address:

Dear Ashevegas,

You might enjoy this local political dust-up over a national issue.

The Asheville Tribune's publisher, Bill Fishburne, and the Asheville Daily Planet's publisher, John North, are lobbing mortar shells over each other's borders on the subject of illegal immigration. After the Daily Planet published a July 3 editorial criticizing the "borderline racist" rhetoric at the recent Stop Illegal Immigration rally (notably Carl Mumpower labeling illegal aliens "cultural terrorists"), Fishburne, the rally's M.C., fired back in the pages of his conservative paper with a "Letter to John North" that insisted neither he nor the rally speakers were racist, simply concerned that invading aliens threatened American culture ...

The key element in all this? North has re-started Asheville's first Spanish-language newspaper, El Eco De Las Montanas, whose fourth issue hit the stands (recently).

The Planet has reprinted Fishburne's letter in its current issue, and North plans to return another round of fire next week.

Read the Planet editorial that sparked the war and
read the Planet's coverage of the June 23 rally.