The Daily Beast website ranked corruption in state governments, and North Carolina wound up fifth, behind (in ascending order) Delaware, Mississippi, Virginia, and Tennessee. [See note at end.]

The lead story on the website, by ProPublica General Manager Richard Tofel, argues that corruption in state capitals is likely to worsen as newspaper capital bureaus shrink, and makes a self-promotional pitch for new nonprofits like ProPublica and its liberal analog Texas Tribune to take up some of the slack.

No mention of the intrepid, freedom-loving gumshoes at Carolina Journal, who’ve actually helped put corrupt politicians in jail, but hey, you can’t ask for everything.

Moreover, take these rankings with a cellar of salt. They rely on weighted averages of convictions in four different categories of federal crimes involving corruption. Because of the averaging process, we’re considered more corrupt than Nevada (#7), South Carolina (#9), D.C. (#36), and … Illinois (#47)?

Plus, the rankings are based on convictions, meaning that the Easley investigations don’t even move the website’s dials. So, hey. There’s always room at the top …

[Note: ProPublica communications director Mike Webb e-mailed to note that The Daily Beast ranked the states, not ProPublica, as I originally reported. Apologies for the error.]