Loose talk of war: NYT, AP, NPR, Reuters, Post declare "crisis" over Iran

It's just astounding to me how the crowd that would like to attack Iran has shifted the Washington media dialogue in the last few weeks. The C-word -- "crisis" -- has been thrown around here and there, but the top media have now actually come to something of a consensus around it. Which is stunning.

At Obama's press conference yesterday, for example, the NYT's Jackie Calmes actually asked if it was "Iran’s last chance to negotiate an end to this nuclear question." Sure enough, in her article on today's front page, she leads with a reference to the "crisis over Iran’s nuclear program."

AP's Ben Feller wrote that "Obama insisted that diplomacy can still resolve the crisis over Iran's possible pursuit of nuclear weapons, and he accused his Republican critics of 'beating the drums of war.'" (Note: for the record, Obama did not use the C-word for Iran at his press conference). Reuters cited a "crisis over its nuclear programme."

The Washington Post also went A1 with crisis today, from Joby Warrick and Thomas Edbrink: "The United States and five other countries agreed to new talks with Iran on Tuesday, offering a diplomatic path to resolving the Iranian nuclear crisis after months of bellicose rhetoric that roiled markets and sparked fears of a new Middle Eastern war. ... The new talks — which are expected to begin within weeks — would be the most significant de-escalation of a crisis that has been gathering steam since November, when U.N. nuclear officials publicly confronted Iran with allegations about past nuclear-weapons research."

NPR's John Donvan spoke of "the crisis over Iran's nuclear ambitions." Even the Christian Science Monitor got in on the act. And the editorial page of the Journal-Register, in Springfield IL, conceded only that "It may not rise to the level of the Cuban Missile Crisis..." Umm.

Look, some part of this is just the general overuse of the word 'crisis' in the media. But some other part is DC media falling into a narrative that's being sold to them by the Israeli government, AIPAC, various right wing think tanks and out-of-power (sort of!) uber-hawks sitting at home in Virginia.