Post's Craig Breathes More Life into 'Macaca' Story

With the 'macaca' controversy growing painfully ancient by the day, Washington Post staff writer Tim Craig found a new liberal talking point to further against Sen. George Allen (R-Va.) in his September 6 Metro section article, "Entertainment Industry Donates to Allen's Bid."

My home-delivered Maryland Edition of the paper ran the story without any 'macaca' references on page B5, but Nexis shows the paper's Final Edition ran the story on B1 with two references to 'macaca' in the article.

According to Nexis, the headline for that run of the article was "Music, TV Industry Donates to Allen; Senator Has Faulted Webb's Ties to Field." I noticed it was the 11th story filed or co-written by Craig to mention the 'macaca' flap.

The following graphs were missing from my paper and the Post's online archive but present in Nexis:

Last month, Allen told a crowd in southwest Virginia that Webb was in Los Angeles raising money from a "bunch of Hollywood movie moguls." He then segued into his infamous "macaca" remark directed at a Webb volunteer of Indian descent. The word is considered a slur in some cultures.

[Center for Responsive Politics spokesman Massie] Ritsch said, "I was watching the macaca video and heard Senator Allen suggest his opponent was beholden to Hollywood and got curious, so we ran the numbers."

Ritsch's organization defines the entertainment industry much more broadly than the context of Sen. Allen's anti-Hollywood remarks, which were targeted at socially liberal Democratic celebrities in Tinseltown.

Craig gave space to Allen's campaign manager Dick Wadham's to make just such an argument, but buried Allen's defense halfway into the article.

Buried further in the article, Craig admits that Democratic Senate candidate James Webb received donations from such social conservative champions in showbiz such as Rob Reiner and "officials with Playboy Enterprises Inc."