Outlet track record
Mountain Xpress
U.S. left-leaning / progressive
Mountain Xpress is an alternative weekly based in Asheville, North Carolina, founded in 1994 by Jeff Fobes and sold in 2026 to the nonprofit Fund for Investigative Reporting and Editing (FIRE). It covers local and regional news, arts, politics, and community events in western North Carolina with an editorial tradition rooted in progressive and grassroots-democracy values. As a left-leaning alt-weekly in a liberal college city, its coverage of the Trump administration's second term has generally been critical in tone.
Owned byFund for Investigative Reporting and Editing (FIRE), a Western North Carolina nonprofit, which purchased the paper from founder and longtime publisher Jeff Fobes in 2026
LeaningU.S. left-leaning / progressive
On the administrationbroadly critical
2average bias score across 2 stories
1 = straight reporting · 10 = heavily spun
1 = straight reporting · 10 = heavily spun