It's simple. David Icke exposed the WaPo staff as part of the shape-shifting Lizard People. Jeffrey Selman is a human who is counter to their agenda.

Interesting fallacy here:

Cobb is solidly Republican -- 62 percent of voters cast ballots for Bush in 2004

So, given a choice between fried chicken and roast beef, if 62% of your dinner party guests went for the chicken, would you say all your friends were "solidly black"? Even the ones that didn't show up? Because if any of your friends are vegan, I bet they'd be surprise to find out their "favorite food" is chicken based on someone else's forced choice.

orthogonality, why is it important that he's Jewish? Perhaps the reporter felt that, had he pointed out Selman's religion, he would be setting up a Christian v. Jew issue (which it is not) rather than reporting on an ID v. evolution controversy.

I don't think saying he is Bronx-born or eats vegetarian Chinese food is necessarily "code" for saying he's Jewish. They are just facts that, together with the questioning culture thing, bring to mind a stereotype. But I do think it's odd to reference a culture of questioning without saying what that culture is. Oversight, code, I just don't know.

Perhaps the reporter felt that, had he pointed out Selman's religion, he would be setting up a Christian v. Jew issue (which it is not) rather than reporting on an ID v. evolution controversy.

He's doing that anyway by using that code. Peter Whoriskey is an ass, and either wanted readers who were looking for a reason to demonize Selman to have one, or picked up that terminology from flyers or the code on the opposing websites/literature (a lazy ass, in other words).

Haven't you heard all the code used lately--for Soros and others?

It reminds me of an article I recently read about a public official who had posted an explicit ad or sex. The article tell us the ad was posted on "manhunt.com". In a single paragraph, we're told the official is a) never married and b) owns an antique store.

But the article "delicately" never mentions or speculates on the official's sexual orientation.

Yeah, we'll tell you Manhunt.com + never married + owns antique store, but we never said he was -- gasp -- gay.

Report the story. Report the subtext. Don't report by winks and nods and code words.