The Stranger

The Stranger

Type	Alternative weekly
Format	Tabloid
Owner	Index Newspapers, LLC
Publisher	Tim Keck
Editor	Christopher Frizzelle
Founded	1991
Headquarters	1535 11th Ave., Third Floor Seattle, WA 98122  United States
Circulation	87,874[1]
Official website	TheStranger.com

The Stranger is an alternative weekly newspaper in Seattle, Washington, USA.

History

The Stranger was founded by Tim Keck, who had previously co-founded the satirical newspaper The Onion, and cartoonist James Sturm. Its first issue came out on September 23, 1991.^[2] The paper is distributed to local businesses, newsstands, and newspaper boxes free of charge every Thursday. It calls itself "Seattle's Only Newspaper," an expression of its disdain for Seattle's two dailies (the Seattle Times and the [now defunct print version of the] Seattle Post-Intelligencer) and The Stranger's main rival, the Seattle Weekly. The paper regularly covers Seattle City Council politics. As with The Onion, its tone is highly ironic.

In its early days, The Stranger had a print run of 20,000, and was focused in Seattle's University District.^[2] The paper was a single sheet wrapped around a wad of coupons for local businesses.

Competition

Its principal competitor is The Seattle Weekly, a weekly newspaper in Seattle, owned by Village Voice Media.^{[citation needed]}

Notable contributing writers

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From April 4, 2001 to September 2007, the paper's editor-in-chief was Dan Savage, an associate editor since its founding, who made his name writing the paper's most popular feature, the sarcastic and sometimes inflammatory sex advice column Savage Love, which has appeared in every issue of The Stranger since the beginning.^[3] In September 2007, Savage became the paper's editorial director and was replaced as editor-in-chief by 27-year-old Christopher Frizzelle, formerly the Books Editor (in 2003) and Arts Editor (from 2004 to 2007).^[4] The newspaper's managing editor is Bethany Jean Clement, formerly the managing editor of Seattle Weekly. Clement's essays in the restaurant section of the newspaper have been anthologized in Best Food Writing 2008 and Best Food Writing 2009.

Associate Editor Charles Mudede is the author of the weekly column Police Beat, which has been adapted to an indie film of the same title. Mudede also co-wrote the controversial movie Zoo, a documentary about the life and death of Kenneth Pinyan who died in a bestiality accident in Enumclaw in July 2005.^{[citation needed]} The paper's masthead also includes actor/monologist David Schmader, who writes a witty and appalled "news of the week" column called Last Days. When he runs low on space, the later days of the week are often filled with simply: "Nothing happened today." When a significant event occurs, Schmader might describe the event with "Nothing happened today, unless you count..."^{[citation needed]}

Other writers closely associated with the newspaper include [Sean Nelson]], lead singer of Seattle band Harvey Danger, formerly "The Stranger" film editor and a staff writer, profiling the Portland, Oregon band the Decemberists and the pre-teen Seattle band Smoosh when they landed a record deal. The Stranger's most prominent contributors include Sherman Alexie, Charles D'Ambrosio, Sarah Vowell, Dave Eggers, Jonathan Raban, Heather McHugh, Rebecca Brown, Edmund White, Gary Shteynhart, Miranda July, Tao Lin, Travis Jeppesen, Andrew Sullivan, Stacey Levine, and JT LeRoy.^{[citation needed]} Previous staffers have included Emily White, who was editor-in-chief and has also authored the books Fast Girls: Teenage Tribes and the Myth of the Slut, (2002), and You Will Make Money in Your Sleep. The Story of Dana Giacchetto, Financial Adviser to the Stars (2007); Eric Fredericksen, who now runs the art space Western Bridge; the novelist Matthew Stadler; Traci Vogel; the art critic Emily Hall; SP Miskowski; Everett True; and Phillip Campbell.^{[citation needed]}

The paper's News Editor is Dominic Holden. Previously, the position was held by Erica C. Barnett, who in 2007 was named reporter of the year by Seattle's venerable Municipal League^[5]. Barnett left the paper in 2009 to work for news web site Publicola.net, founded by former Stranger news editor Josh Feit. The paper's Arts Editor is Brendan Kiley.

Stranger ombudsman A. Birch Steen writes acerbic criticism of the paper within every issue, usually assailing the contents for their extreme liberal bias. He is billed as a former member of the OSHA Board of Governors, but is likely a fictional character. The name is an anagram of Steinbacher, last name of Bradley Steinbacher, an employee of The Stranger's since the beginning and the paper's Managing Editor from 2003 until 2008 ^[6]. Steen's harsh critiques, originally appearing on the inside of the back page, now appear above the table of contents ("The Stranger: A Critical Overview")--the first piece of writing in every issue. ^[7], and as the apparent author of the paper's twitter feed. ^[8]

Comics

The Stranger has published original comics, illustrations, or graphic art by such notable cartoonists as Tony Millionaire, Peter Bagge, Ellen Forney, Megan Kelso, Al Columbia, Chris Ware, R. Crumb, Jim Woodring, and K. Thor Jensen. In addition, it was the only major Seattle paper to run any of the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons: four of them were used to illustrate an article by Bruce Bawer about the controversy.

Awards programs

Since 2003, in association with the cigarette company Lucky Strike, and later the antismoking arts organization Art Patch, the newspaper has awarded the annual Stranger Genius Awards to four Seattle-area individuals and one Seattle-area arts organization. Besides the recognition, each winner receives a $5000 cash award and a cake.^[9] Winners of the award include the filmmaker James Longley, the filmmaker Lynn Shelton, the writer Sherman Alexie, the poet Heather McHugh, the actress Sarah Rudinoff, the experimental-theater collective Implied Violence, the artist Jeffry Mitchell, and the artist Wynne Greenwood.^[10] A party and rock show for the winners is held every fall in an unlikely venue--past Stranger Genius Award parties have been held at the downtown public library, Seattle Art Museum, and the Moore Theater.

HUMP!

The HUMP! film festival provides a venue and awards for home movie erotica. Founded in 2005 by Dan Savage, Hump has since become an annual event that has gained international condemnation from religious fundamentalists allied with second wave feminists.^{[citation needed]}

Controversies

• In January 2000, on political assignment from The Stranger, Dan Savage may have set out to infect Gary Bauer with influenza by licking a doorknob in Iowa. Alternatively, the entire episode may have been a work of political satire.^[11]
• In March 2004, Christopher Frizzelle wrote an essay about sitting down with two famous fallen journalists, Stephen Glass and Jayson Blair, for their first joint interview. Both men had been publicly assailed for fabricating news stories. The piece was an analysis of what they had done and included many quotes from Glass and Blair about why they had done what they had done--but a careful reading of the piece reveals that it too was entirely fabricated. Essentially, Frizzelle was committing the same act against them that they had committed against unnumbered others. ^[12] Frizzelle was later "fired" for the breach of journalistic trust, and the memo from editor Dan Savage regarding this breach of the readers' trust was itself plagiarized from the New York Times memo about Mr. Blair's breach of readers' trust. ^[13]
• In August 2006, a woman in North Carolina had her personalized license plate recalled when the state figured out the meaning of ITMFA, i.e., "Impeach the motherfucker already," which was part of a political campaign aimed at President George W. Bush, initiated at The Stranger. Dan Savage derived it from his DTMFA catchphrase.^[14]
• On the halloween prior to the 2008 elections the Stranger published a parody in its series, Topography of Terror, which included the addresses of homes displaying Republican yard signs.^[15] The controversy was then mentioned in a Saturday Night Live skit about internet conspiracy theories about Democrat intimidation of elderly Republican voters.^{[citation needed]} The alt weekly later blacked out the addresses on the online version of its story, after charges of voter intimidation.^[15]

See also

Seattle portal

• The Portland Mercury, the Stranger's sister publication based out of Portland, Oregon.

Notes and references

External links

• Official site