Monday, February 13, 2006

CNN and Nancy Grace: Don't know much about geography

Anyone catch Nancy Grace's eponymous legal show on Headline News tonight? (Transcript here.)

One of the two feature stories was about the Perry March case--a Tennessee murder where the body may have been dumped in Kentucky. Grace teased it as a North Carolina story. Oops. You know how those southern states all seem alike to us New Yorkers.

Then she asked a guest about the police looking for the body in Lexington. The guest politely corrected that the body was allegedly in Bowling Green, not Lexington. At least she had gotten the state right this time.

Then the helpful CNN production staff posted a map to clarify matters. Only thing is, they reversed Kentucky and Tennessee. And they reversed Bowling Green and Nashville. Oops.

A few minutes later they posted the map again. With the same mistakes.

A few minutes later, they posted it a third time. With the same mistakes.

Can anyone get me a screen shot of the bad map? A CNN classic.

And what a performance by that Nashville Scene guy! (Disclosure: I'm not fully disinterested.) And I don't think the guy works for the Scene anymore. But it's really not that important for the network to get the facts completely right, is it? After all, it's just CNN. And this is the age of truthiness.

Update: According to sources, some flattering and some not, Grace spent significant time in the South. All the more reason for her to get her southern geography right.

Update: Related post here about Nashville Scene citation.