Lots of Americans can't find US on a map. Not surprised about Fox News on Egypt

Having worked in television news, I can give testament that these maps are, with no exception that I can think of, generated by a dedicated software package. Graphics people figured out a while ago that everybody needs maps, and reinventing them is completely ineffective.

As an example, weather maps at my station were generated by a relatively standard package running on IRIX. News maps were generated by a Web service, one of my first introductions to SaaS. I believe Chyron bought it. The service was stupidly simple - insert coordinates, draw labels, push Submit, receive pictures. I only saw it used, but I know it did the labeling for you.

I know it's fun to beat up on Fox News, but the likelihood of someone moving Egypt's label over Iraq in Photoshop after the fact is far higher than Fox News actually airing this graphic.