LA Times Finally Calls A Spade A Spade
This daily catalogue of the violence in Eye-Rack, courtesy of the LA Times, is unremarkable except for the first line:
BAGHDAD — Iraq's civil war worsened Friday as Shiite and Sunni Arabs engaged in retaliatory attacks after coordinated car bombings that killed more than 200 people in a Shiite neighborhood the day before.
It's simply unfair to the Iraqi people to avoid the obvious just to cover some political ass. I hope the rest of the media will finally start calling it as it is and go from there. John Roberts of CNN has the right idea although the "media watchdog" Howard Kurtz is being as much of a giant putz as he ever was.
Update: NBC News is also following suit (via Atrios)
Update II: The Washington Post sadly decides that using the words "civil war" to describe the violence in Eye-Rack is inappropriate because the quisling Eye-Rack government refuses to use it.
Think about that. A major publication is willing to play stenographer for an ostensibly foreign government, taking obviously self-serving cues and descriptions from a political entity. Imagine if a similar situation was happening in this country. It would seem that the Post is perfectly willing to repeat government lies instead of informing the public of life-or-death truths. It's a shame, since the Post is the publication of which I rely most on the Eye-Rack coverage.
Update III: Thankfully, the New York Times have finally come to their senses:
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - 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.. . ."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.
Update IV: Ah, I see the official policy of the Washington Post is to do the bidding of foreign governments and only call a civil wars when the opinions are in concert. . .except when that foreign government is not Bush Occupied Eye-Rack (via Crooks and Liars).