Nah we've just been getting it wrong all this time... As usual the Americans are correct.

Meh. Locating it within 120 miles is close enough when you're broadcasting from Atlanta. THIS is a graphics goof.

Close enough for a news graphic. It's not like CNN is selling navigational maps or something.

But I guess it feeds into the stereotype of dumb Americans so let the crying commence.

I see London, ...

England? Never heard of it.

Dinki: Well obviously, if CNN misplaces London that exonerates Fox from all of their 'mistakes', intentional and otherwise.

No, but had this been FOX news it would have been undeniable proof of the stupidity of Republicans.

To be honest, I don't know the exact location of London on a map either. I know where England is, and I know London is in England, but I'd have to look it up for an exact location. It's just not something I ever think about, or has ever come up in my life.

But, then again, I don't mark maps and put them up on national television. I'd probably at least double check to cover my ass at that point.

/I only care about London because of 'Sherlock'
//if I was ever in the UK, I'd be poking around watching them film Doctor Who instead
/hehe, there are tons of alien planets in the quarrys in Whales!

crab66: Close enough for a news graphic. It's not like CNN is selling navigational maps or something.

But I guess it feeds into the stereotype of dumb Americans so let the crying commence.

Not even remotely close enough given the size of England. If that's your job you do it right and spend all of 20 seconds googling it first. I don't think it makes all Americans dumb does it?

It's not like they left Wales off the map. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/3715512.stm

i blame the layoffs.

gumpy: crab66: Close enough for a news graphic. It's not like CNN is selling navigational maps or something.

But I guess it feeds into the stereotype of dumb Americans so let the crying commence.

Not even remotely close enough given the size of England. If that's your job you do it right and spend all of 20 seconds googling it first. I don't think it makes all Americans dumb does it?

No, it just makes CNN graphics people overworked and underpaid, like everyone in journamalism except for major newspaper columnists and teevee talking heads. You gets what you pays for, and media corporations are perfectly happy paying less for crappy work.

gumpy: crab66: Close enough for a news graphic. It's not like CNN is selling navigational maps or something.

But I guess it feeds into the stereotype of dumb Americans so let the crying commence.

Not even remotely close enough given the size of England. If that's your job you do it right and spend all of 20 seconds googling it first. I don't think it makes all Americans dumb does it?

You are just lucky it was CNN and not FOX.

In that case you might be looking at a map of Iceland or something.

Yep... It's time to drag out this graphic:

FTFA - "One witty Twitter user said he was waiting to see the coach loads of American tourists trying to find Buckingham Palace in the rural backwaters of Norfolk."

Rural backwater?? Nearly a million people live in Norfolk.. 420 sq miles.
VS where I live - Maine - with just over a million people living in 35+K sq miles. I think that people in England don't really 'get' rural.

crab66: Close enough for a news graphic. It's not like CNN is selling navigational maps or something.

But I guess it feeds into the stereotype of dumb Americans so let the crying commence.

Yeah, it's not like CNN claims to be providing facts or anything.

Well, duh. Everyone knows it's between Sarnia and Kitchener.

Morans.

I was raised in the California Public Education system. I could easily point to London on a world map. Or, I would look at a marked map if not sure.

What the hell, intern? Just point to a place in England, and go, "yeah, it's there?"

3steps: I think that people in England don't really 'get' rural.

Keep in mind that the entire UK is about the size of Oregon.

PlatinumDragon: Yeah, it's not like CNN claims to be providing facts or anything.

I'm sure no Canadian news broadcast has ever had a mistake.... Oh wait. A quick search reveals plenty.

Why do you misrepresent facts Canada?

crab66: PlatinumDragon: Yeah, it's not like CNN claims to be providing facts or anything.

I'm sure no Canadian news broadcast has ever had a mistake.... Oh wait. A quick search reveals plenty.

Why do you misrepresent facts Canada?

When did I say anything about nationality? Stupid mistake is stupid, whether it airs on CNN, CBC, or BBC - and when the subject is a major city misplotted on a map someone had to waste time making in the first place, it's particularly stupid.

/works in broadcasting
//getting a kick...

pop quiz - what's the capital of Australia?
(sadly, I didn't know the answer until this year)

20/20: pop quiz - what's the capital of Australia?
(sadly, I didn't know the answer until this year)

it is always the first letter of the state or country. it would look exceedingly silly to capitalize the last or any middle letter. so in this case it is the "a".

20/20: pop quiz - what's the capital of Australia?
(sadly, I didn't know the answer until this year)

Canberra. What do I win?

/bonus points: it's within its own National Capital Territory

crab66: Close enough for a news graphic. It's not like CNN is selling navigational maps or something.

No, it's like they're selling themselves as a news organization. Specifically, a news organization that apparently can't do 27 seconds worth of research, which is the amount of time it took me to type "london england" into Google, bring up maps, zoom out, and find the right location.

This is (partly) why Americans are so stereotypically dumb. Because they have such lazy, piss-poor standards and will happily spend an hour making excuses for their mistakes than 27 seconds of research to prevent those mistakes in the first place.

/ and they only reason it even took 27 seconds is because my DNS lookup initially hung for some reason

To be fair I wouldn't know where London was either if I didn't watch so much Top Gear.

/still would have spent 15 second to Google it though

All news outlets make dumbass mistakes on occasion. It's not an "America vs Europe/Canada" thing or a "Liberals vs conservatives" thing, it's a "People are stupid and lazy" thing. Stop with the constant butthurt and laugh with the rest of us instead.

mbillips: [i.huffpost.com image 500x366]

Came for this, leaving satisfied.

Fluorescent Testicle: All news outlets make dumbass mistakes on occasion. It's not an "America vs Europe/Canada" thing or a "Liberals vs conservatives" thing, it's a "People are stupid and lazy" thing. Stop with the constant butthurt and laugh with the rest of us instead.

mbillips: [i.huffpost.com image 500x366]

Came for this, leaving satisfied.

When I want to take advice from the nation that produced Hitler I will let you know.

To be fair: traveling the M25 can make it seem like you're driving to Norfolk.

20/20: pop quiz - what's the capital of Australia?
(sadly, I didn't know the answer until this year)

What... is your favorite color?

PlatinumDragon: 20/20: pop quiz - what's the capital of Australia?
(sadly, I didn't know the answer until this year)

Canberra.

Wrong, it's Sydney. I know because when I went to Sydney, they said "Welcome to Australia" and they wouldn't have said that if Sydney != Australia.

QED. That's Greek for I'm awesome and you suck.


/brought to you by the American education system

Pants full of macaroni!!: By the way, I know where London is. It's just west of Columbus.

[www.bestplaces.net image 264x264]

Liar! London is in Kentucky. Between Manchester and Somerset, and just southwest of Atlanta.

PlatinumDragon: 20/20: pop quiz - what's the capital of Australia?
(sadly, I didn't know the answer until this year)

Canberra. What do I win?

/bonus points: it's within its own National Capital Territory

Canberra? You mean the chocolate makers?

This, and other map labeling mistakes, suggest that they are creating the graphics anew each time. Don't they have a library of pre-made, and vetted, maps they can call up?

Wellon Dowd: This, and other map labeling mistakes, suggest that they are creating the graphics anew each time. Don't they have a library of pre-made, and vetted, maps they can call up?

That implies foresight and planning, which cuts into profits and takes funds from paying for insightful commentators such as Erick Erickson.

Joking aside, I'm somewhat amazed they don't have software to support this common task by now. Licence something from Google or MS if you friggin' have to, but it should be quite possible to enter a location and spit out a broadcast-ready graphic in a minute or less, allowing for time to center and crop as needed.

Then again... relying on barely-supervised unpaid interns and blowing money on blowhards like Erickson, empty suits like CIAnderson Cooper, and whiz-bang video packages that manage to carry zero information, all add up to stuff like this. Beavis and Butthead would be more informative than CNN the few times I've seen it in the last few years.*

Now, interns and practicum students can do good, useful work when properly trained and supervised, but they should be viewed and treated as students and potential apprentices, not free employees. I wouldn't unleash their efforts on an unsuspecting audience without at least doing a sanity check on their work - and I've done exactly that in the past. I don't know how stringent the editorial review is at 24-hour news operations like CNN claims to be, though if it's anything like the questionable editorial standards for print and Internet publishing I guess I shouldn't be surprised. Still, given the money clearly sunk into stupidity, a bit could be diverted toward someone carefully checking graphics before putting them to air.

* The last time I saw CNN was during the hours leading up to that hurricane that hit the East Coast last year while waiting for some take-out. The sound was off. After some live clips of Cooper and some reporters doing standups in the predicted landfall zone, a video package aired that seemed to be showing clips of press conferences and hurricane-related b-roll, but the whole thing was jumpy and disjointed, with filters and editing more appropriate for a music video than a news segment. Oh gods, the waste of a medium...