I reckon Mike's got a point. It just seems silly to make such a statement, because it can be wildly misread, as we all have.
I think that's probably how myths start.
When the 2005 came out, an inspector told me that washers would all have to be GFCI protected, or on a single receptacle. At that time, it hadn't come to my attention of the revised wording regarding laundry
sinks, which would require
any receptacle within 6'
of a sink to be GFI protected. It was nothing to do with washing machines, and he'd spun off in a whole new orbit about how you could plug something into the washer receptacle, and then drop it into the washing machine when it was full of water. "A great idea, a good change to the code," he said.
Together we looked through 210.8, 210.11, and 210.52(F) searching for the source of this "washing machine" code. He'd decided not to enforce it until he figured out what the heck was going on. I figured it out a while later.
Moral: Half truths spawn whole lies.
