CBS Evening News EP Rome Hartman thinks NBC's "civil war" decision is a political statement. The Observer quotes him:

"To be honest with you, I think it's a political statement, not a news judgment. We deal with the events of the day, and we decide the best way to describe those events based on the news of the day, not by—never mind, I'm not gonna go there.

It should be noted that the day that this pronouncement -- and who makes pronouncements anyway? But that's what it sounded like -- was a quiet day, relatively speaking, in Iraq."