US media split over Iraq's 'civil war'

For months, the US media have been torn over use of the term "civil war" to describe the conflict in Iraq. But the carnage of the past week has convinced many outlets to call it what it is. NBC News and MSNBC have started to do so, as has the Los Angeles Times and the Christian Science Monitor. Others are still holding back: the Washington Post refers to it as "sectarian conflict" and this is the euphemism also adopted by the Associated Press. One clear statement by Newsweek columnist Fareed Zakaria puts it in perspective: "There can be no more doubt that Iraq is in a civil war, in which leaders of both its main communities, Sunnis and Shiites, are fomenting violence." (Via Editor & Publisher)