How did we get here?

What sort of cultural shift has led us to a linguistic politics where a news organization feels they must issue a preemptive defense for their use of the term "civil war?" (Video-NBC explains.))

I don't want to go all Orwell on you because that sounds about as crazy as the massive bible quoters, but really, the fact that the political influence excercised by this administration has extended so deeply into even the language used by the media should cause real concern.