Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., not happy with a recent Washington Post article. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
OK, he’s joking. Well, it’s more kidding on the square since he, and many of constituents in Minnesota, are pissed at The Washington Post. Or at least a few have been aggressive in communicating their displeasure.
It started when the state got what the Columbia Journalism Review now decrees to be “a bitter lesson on the limits of data this week” when the Post’s “Wonkblog” ranked every county in the country based on “scenery and climate.”
As Post reporter Christopher Ingraham indicated in his original piece and in a subsequent droll rebuttal to North Star State chagrin, he took information from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s 1999 “natural amenities index,” which is a series of lists based on climate, topography, and water.
The North Star state didn’t fare well, with all but two of its 87 counties rating low on the list.
Residents took to social media, rather than the streets. They even formed an online coalition, the “Indignant Minnesotans.”
CJR noted how the drift of the federal data is meant to detail natural attributes that “enhance the location as a place to live.” But it may ignore “the fact that some people like snowy winters and don’t mind the lack of mountains. Never mind outside factors such as population density, property values, and schools.”
The Post reporter noted that residents of other states in a similar statistical boat did not take similar umbrage. Iowa, Delaware, North Dakota, Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin don’t do particular well, either, with either no counties, or just one or two, “ranking at average beauty or above.”
But he didn’t hear from anybody in those states.
Of course, it’s possible that not a single human being in Iowa, Delaware, North Dakota, Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin read the Post. But that’s rather unlikely. I can personally guarantee it’s not true in one Chicago residence. In addition, I know of one person in Madison, Wisconsin, and one person in Terre Haute, Indiana.
But I may be missing somebody in Milwaukee and Indianapolis.
And I can’t speak for Delaware or North Dakota.
Regardless, Minnesotans were miffed and coordinated in waxing outraged.
As for Minnesota’s comedian-turned-U.S. senator, Democrat Franken informed Ingraham, “A survey taken in the Franken office determined that the least desirable place to live in the country is actually inside the Washington Post’s headquarters.”
Well, the paper has sold its headquarters building and will be moving. Maybe Franken will feel more sympathetic about the livability of the new joint.
