This is just laughable.

WASHINGTON - Over White House objections, The New York Times and other U.S. news outlets have adopted the term “civil war” for the fighting in Iraq, reflecting a growing consensus that sectarian violence has engulfed the country.

After NBC News’ widely publicized decision Monday to brand the conflict a civil war, several prominent newspapers, including the Los Angeles Times, pointed to their use of the phrase.

“It’s hard to argue that this war does not fit the generally accepted definition of civil war,” New York Times Executive Editor Bill Keller said in a statement.

First, this seems to me like a pretty transparent attempt on the part of the mainstream media to remind us all of who is really in charge when it comes to distributing information and shaping public opinion.  If NBC and the New York Times wants it to be a civil war in Iraq, then by golly a civil war is what they’ll call it.

This has nothing to do with finding the terminology to accurately portray what’s going on in Iraq and everything to do with the media’s unending mission to a) make Iraq look like a failure b) undermine public support for the war and c) force an immediate withdrawal.

If the media were truly concerned about accurate terminology they wouldn’t be calling terrorists like Hezbollah and al Qaeda fighters “insurgents” or “rebels.”