Well I guess that must make it so then:

NEW YORK -- NBC News on Monday began referring to the Iraq conflict as a civil war, adopting a phrase that President Bush and many other news organizations have avoided.

Matt Lauer said on the "Today" show that "after careful consideration, NBC News has decided that a change in terminology is warranted, that the situation in Iraq with armed militarized factions fighting for their own political agendas can now be characterized as civil war."

The network's cable news outlet, MSNBC, drummed the point home repeatedly by using the phrase "Iraq: The Civil War" on the screen.

Even the Associated Press, where this story came from, and apparently the Washington Post, which published it, question NBC's news judgment in deciding to blatantly broadcast editorial comment as hard news:

There are different criteria for defining a civil war. Webster's New World College Dictionary defines it simply as "war between geographical sections or political factions of the same nation." Some political scientists use a threshold of 1,000 dead, which the current conflict has long since passed.

There are more conservative definitions. The Web site GlobalSecurity.org, which provides information on defense issues, said five criteria must be met: The contestants must control territory, have a functioning government, enjoy some foreign recognition, have identifiable regular armed forces and engage in major military operations.

Compare the above definitions with known civil wars, such as ours, for instance. It's pretty clear that the definition from GlobalSecurity.org is the correct definition of a "civil war". I would say this is more an accurate definition than a "conservative" one. But an accurate definition of "civil war" doesn't fit the pre-conceived liberal bias of the leftist scamps at NBC. So rather than strive for accuracy in reporting the news, we'll just label the war as something that it isn't and hope it sticks. I predict the Clinton News Network will be the next "unbiased media source" to adopt the definition if they haven't already. They are probably pissed that they didn't think of it first.