Kernel builds not working related to 'file' detection

[Bruno Wolff III]

On x86_64 when I try to build kernels, make modules is failing because the 
.o files are not being recognized as object files and the linker trys to 
read them as linker commands, which breaks the build.

When I test the file command on one of these, the detected type is 'data'.
On i686 the .o files are properly detected. This changed a week or so 
ago, but file and file-libs haven't change since last summer. I have been 
doing this on f20, but there hasn't been a change on rawhide to file either.

Any ideas what is going on here?