Actually, I don't think so. This story was reported by the Washington Post. That's pretty MSM to me. I think they are just a little bit ashamed now of their piling-on of George Allen. I also think they are not real big fans of Jim Webb either. The Webb campaign opened this Pandora's box, now they get to deal with the consequences.
Reporting it once is no big deal. See if they keep it up.
You are absolutely right. The Webb campaign tried to smear Allen on racial issues by digging into his past, but that invited other people to look into Webb's past too. The Webb people overreached, and now it's biting them in the butt. Even liberal newspapers like the Post can't resist a colorful story like this.
I disagree. This smacks of damage control by the Compost, in response to the bias charges levelled against them as a result of their piling on George Allen. They figure they can point to this one and say, "See, we're hitting both candidates just as hard on racial allegations, so quit your whining, GOP!", and then just let this piece on Webb quietly fade from public view with no follow-up.
Of course, they'll think they have enough cover to continue to hammer Allen without pause, by bringing up Dim activists who swear they remember playing with their GI Joe dolls with Allen when they were kids, and that he called the black GI Joes "n******s."
This is such a disgusting campaign.