Olbermann: 'Civil War' naming is Iraq's Walter Cronkite moment [VIDEO]

Posted by Evan Derkacz at 11:08 AM on November 28, 2006.

Noting that "it's the media's job to cut through [the administration's deceptive language] and call things what they are," Congressional Quarterly's Craig Crawford quipped that "If these guys were designing road signs they'd probably want to call a 'dead end' sign 'outlet free.'"

Such is the flood of tragically humorous commentary unleashed by White House winging over (MS)NBC's decision to call it a Civil War. The Daily Show also had its way with the administration's (and therefore the media's) linguistic pilates with respect to the Civil War in Iraq [VIDEO].

In the clip above, Keith Olbermann compares his employers' decision to call it a Civil War to Walter Cronkite's shift in Vietnam reporting in 1968 when he began to speak of the war as unwinnable. Many believe that was the beginning of the end for America's involvement in Vietnam...

To read more about the media conflict see today's front page story on AlterNet HERE.

Tagged as: iraq, olbermann, civil war, bush administration, language

Evan Derkacz is an AlterNet editor. He writes and edits PEEK, the blog of blogs.