Editor Who Threatened McGinniss Is Fired

The editor at Sarah Palin's hometown paper who reminded Joe McGinniss that Alaskans can use "deadly force" to protect their property is now looking for a job. The publisher of the Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman sent Tom Mitchell packing after his line set off a media firestorm of its own, reports the Alaska Dispatch. "It certainly caught fire," said Mitchell. "Palin's a spark plug for a lot of things."

Mitchell apologized for the line in a subsequent editorial, saying he was just looking for a punchy ending. "It was supposed to be sort of an inside joke, but it didn't work." The publisher says the editorial didn't play a role in the firing, though she wouldn't elaborate on other reasons. It probably didn't help that she had asked for the last paragraph of the offending editorial to be removed. Because of an editing mix-up, the last line lived.