We begin with Media Matters:
Wait for it…
Wait for it…
And…
Now, far be it for me to critique the general public’s knowledge of geography. When I was in high school, I had Europe memorized and now I can’t remember what’s where because a good chunk of it as changed. So if Fox News is incapable of remember where Egypt is, it’s probably because of the recent changes in the area that have caused confusion.
We can all understand that, right?
Except that Egypt’s existed for thousands and thousands of years.
I know Fox doesn’t care for all that learnin’ stuff that well, so I’m going to explain things from the “Egyptian History! For Kids! site.
First, they say:
Because it is surrounded by deserts like the Land of Oz, Egypt is pretty hard to invade. So a lot of the time Egypt was at peace. But not all the time….The Egyptians also sometimes fought off invasions from the Libyans to their west, or from the Nubians to their south (and sometimes they lost to these invaders too). Around 1700 BC, there was a big invasion of Hyksos from the north.
1700 BC… that’s like… lots and lots of years ago. Probably even before I was born.
As in the rest of Africa…
Dude. Egypt’s in Africa?. When the &*%@ did that happen?
Of course, as you’ve now probably figured out, that is not, in fact, Egypt that’s labeled as Egypt. Egypt would be that unlabeled part that’s part of Africa, just to the left of (literally, not figuratively) Syria and Jordan. The part marked as Egypt?
That’s just an obscure little country no one would know about called… Iraq.
For what it’s worth– I don’t think this is part of some fiendish plot of some sort on the part of Fox to push some talking point or another. I think they’ve simply become so fact-averse that they don’t bother checking. I’m guessing this was done by an Intern (or, possibly, Tom Delay in some prison furlough program) and no one paid enough attention to actually double-check anything. Which, I believe, illustrates the Fox News motto:
F*$! it, we’ll do it live!
They claim they’re fair and balanced. I don’t think they ever claimed they’re not stupid.
Because we need to mix fact and fiction on a history site?
Or is there another Oz that is surrounded by sand?
see Egypt from her living room window and Russia from her kitchen window.
So simple.
Fox News is so perfect that they have a Zero Tolerance policy for chyron errors. There can never be anything wrong with Fox News, because if they say it, therefore it IS true!
If the Best President in the Whole World, GW Bush, were still in charge, and we ALL wish he here, then the State Department would issue a global decree ordering Egypt and Iraq to change places. And then we’d bomb anyone that dared refuse, and simultaneously cut taxes on the incredibly wealthy.
Ah, how we all miss the olden days, when America would start wars just for the fun of slaughtering a couple thousand US soldiers (and millions of those pesky brown-people) for no reason other than giving Dick Cheney a good laugh – and huge profits for his war-profiteering company.
But, alas, no. We have a Democrat in the White House. 🙁 someone that actually speaks in complete sentences, actually knows where Egypt is, and doesn’t automatically attack everyone in sight! Oh, the horrors!
In the long run, the Republicans will always win. Because Fox said so, that’s why. How dare anyone question Fox News’ integrity! That’s anti-American!
My kids and I have been listening to the Wizard of Oz on podcast, and I did learn that Oz, unlike Egypt, is surrounded by desert. The book is much more detailed than the movie, I recommend taking a listen or a read.
Wow, Fox news just made that all up. I think most Middle School students doing a Geography project would have a more detailed and factual presentation. Do they have to broadcast some kind of retraction or like, the right information?
..we invaded Iraq. It wasn’t about WMDs; it was about the Suez Canal. Glad they straightened that out. (Oh, the poor little kiddies–up into their 20s!)
These sorts of ‘errors’ happen often enough on Fox News that I seriously doubt that they are errors at all.
They are well calculated marketing efforts, designed to get the lefty bloggers buzzing. And it works!
Remember one thing about Fox News: it’s like pro-wrestling. It is for entertainment purposes only – which isn’t to say that there are not real world consequences to what they are broadcasting – but they are not trying to be informative. They are just trying to attract viewers.