CNN 'Don't Know Much About Geography'

With all the talk about journalistic integrity surrounding leaks, fabricated stories, bloggers, and citizen journalists, it would be wise to remember that readers always notice the little things - and the little things add up to the big thing called 'reputation.'

CNN ran this map yesterday, as part of its coverage of the French riots:


Of the seven cities, not one is correctly placed. Strasboug's in Switzerland, Toulouse is on the Italian-Swiss border, Lyon is hundreds of miles east of its true location, as is Cannes. Lille is not on the coast, and the French capital is where Lille should be.

And the country label - "FRANCE" - is so far inside Germany that it almost rewrites history.

Worse, it's not just CNN's expertise that's called into question - GoogleEarth and EarthSat are attributed as the map's source. One has to wonder what signal this sends: If the largest media companies on the planet can't get simple facts straight, how can they decry bloggers or citizen journalists' shortcomings?