What does Gawker have against Washington state?

Posted by Alyssa

Hint – most of it has to do with our alt-weekly that tends to push a few buttons from time to time.

What appears to be a several-day roll out of a bias ranking of the 50 United States, from best to worst, Gawker has good news for the state of Washington. We rank the among the best of the worst. Here’s what Gawker had to say:

First off, a thank-you should go to Gawker for recognizing our natural beauty. It’s also hard to dispute that the Twilight franchise has boosted tourism in the small town of Forks ten-fold.

But, what scientific proof to the writers at Gawker that proves Seattle is the most “annoying” city in America?

Well – it has do with some other writers, over at The Stranger. If you click through some previous Gawker articles, it’s hard to miss the disdain for the non-Village Voice-owned weekly alternative newspaper.

In one critique – Gawker wrote about The Stranger’s choice to feature a cover story on an author, who wrote a story about himself and his “stunt-novel.” The title of the article? The Great American Novelist. Prized words to describe the The Stranger here were, “waterlogged, coffee-swilling pests.”

Ouch.

And let’s not forget their tearing down of regular Stranger contributor Charles Mudede. They featured a piece about him in the category “crazies.”

So maybe it’s a side issue … are you on the side of The Stranger? Of Gawker? Or should we just surf the pages of each of all the news websites with an awareness that everyone has a little bias, even when they try to avoid it?

Regardless, let’s just agree with the final description for Oregon, the 43rd worst state.

Once you leave Oregon you have to drive a whole hell of a long way until you get anywhere else, unless of course you drive north to Seattle, but who would want to do that?

Oh, we would.