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Go Home Fox News Fails Geography, Uses False Map Of North Carolina

ELECTIONATE OCTOBER 16, 2012

Fox News Fails Geography, Uses False Map Of North Carolina

BY NATE COHN

This is North Carolina.

Its borders have been established for hundreds of years, beginning with King Charles II's Royal Colonial Boundary in 1665. Since then, North Carolina's northern border has been unmistakably straight, although it took a little longer for the southern border to get worked out. 

But when Karl Rove and Joe Trippi took their most recent look at the electoral map and moved the Tar Heel State’s 15 electoral votes to “Lean Romney,” it became apparent that they had moved more than just the state’s position in the Electoral College. According to Fox News, North Carolina is a raggedy island and, if you look carefully, you can see smaller islands off its northern and southern coasts ensconced inside of Virginia or South Carolina. The border with South Carolina isn't defined by geometric lines, but an arch of supposed coastline stretching from Cape Fear to the Appalachians.

Making Fox's North Carolina map even stranger is their utterly conventional depiction of Virginia, which features a straight-line, east-west border with North Carolina.

Somehow, Fox News is airing a one-of-a-kind and entirely inaccurate outline of North Carolina with fictional islands and inlets. The first 42 pages of Google Images search results of “North Carolina” and 38 pages of “North Carolina maps” did not include a single map that depicted North Carolina with anything other than straight borders, suggesting that the error wasn’t simply the result of a geographically disinterested intern picking an unfortunately prominent map of the Tar Heel State. A quick look at a past Rove/Trippi map session also revealed the same inaccurate depiction of North Carolina.

Anticipating the first reaction of TNR's many progressive readers, I have even preemptively ruled out conservative-bias. While Republicans harbor grand ambitions for the state’s wildlife, they have apparently accepted the state’s borders.

How could Fox News misrepresent something as simple as the outline of an American state? After all, they got the other states right. Where did this map come from? Did they make it? Was it a prank? You decide. 

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9 comments

You didn't hear the news? NC has been in a shooting war with the 2 mountains of conceit for centuries. They grabbed some territory a month ago and now we're fightin' hard to git it back. Tune in to Faux Nooz to get some more updates. As I write this we're about to annex SC and force them to disavow mustard-based BBQ sauce and send Myrtle Beach into permanent exile.

- tmmats

October 16, 2012 at 12:53pm

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I also don't know how you all missed the big story about the way in which Asheville, N.C. has become a kind of headquarters for aiding the rebel forces led by the Tennessee Resistance Council. There's a whole covert op thing going on, with planes flying across the mountains into East TN dropping Korean barbecue recipe books, alternative lifestyle advisers, and natural undyed wool sweaters.

- ironyroad

October 16, 2012 at 1:08pm

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They misrepresent everything else why shouldn't they misrepresent the shape and size of a state?

- Sophia

October 16, 2012 at 1:18pm

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I'm doing my part, I enlisted in my local unit of the NC national guard in Raleigh. We're especially angered with the sacrilegious way that thems in SC put mustard on the sacred smoked porcine. Our battle cry is "vinegar&spices or death!".

- tmmats

October 16, 2012 at 1:25pm

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It looks like Western North Carolina has been mashed-up with the UP. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upper_Peninsula_of_Michigan. Cohn really should have caught that. irony, can we call in a team of Asheville commandos to "resolve" the Rep. Desjarlais situation?

- dmorehous

October 16, 2012 at 1:40pm

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Sorry, Nate; I meant that *Jonathan* Cohn should have caught that.

- dmorehous

October 16, 2012 at 1:41pm

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I don't think it's the UP--it just doesn't seem right. It also faintly resembles Cornwall, although it's not a great match. I have some inquiries out; maybe we'll get some answers soon.

- benjamin81

October 16, 2012 at 2:28pm

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dmorehouse -- the wikipedia entry on Scott DesJarlais actually contains the following remarkable sentence: "DesJarlais has since stated that he supports abortion only in cases of rape, or to save the mother's life, or when it serves his own purpose."

- ironyroad

October 16, 2012 at 5:43pm

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I am enjoying this discussion, but the answer lies in compression algorithms. Fox News started with too small of image of NC, possibly by hand cutting it, then blew it up. You will notice that Virginia, too, has a jagged border, though not as bad as North Carolina. However, possibly Fox doesn't believe in algorithms because they are too difficult to understand.

- polijunky

October 16, 2012 at 6:02pm

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