As Western Journalism has reported, the ratings for once venerable CNN have been steadily declining, with the news net recently placing 25th among cable channels — far behind consistent ratings giant Fox News.

Having been active in and around TV news for decades, I understand how CNN’s poor competitive performance can lead to a death spiral for such a big operation. Lower ratings mean lower revenues which mean fewer and less skilled staff.

So, one might understand how mistakes like the one CNN just made in its twitter feed could happen, especially if you have inexperienced or overworked personnel at the keyboard.

But seriously, mistaking Italy for the United States would seem to be an error even a fifth grader wouldn’t make. Witness the twitter storm that brewed right after CNN posted a geography-challenged, holiday-related tweet…that as of this writing still hasn’t been deleted:

Suburban areas in the U.S. can be up to 50 percent brighter during the holidays, @NASA says: http://t.co/GJe9Y2J866 pic.twitter.com/SRpGb646P2

— CNN (@CNN) December 19, 2014

@CNN @NASA Uh. Geography fail? — Matthew (@Matthew__Turner) December 19, 2014

@roblin68 @CNN @NASA It really doesn’t matter that it’s Italy, because the larger truth is accurate #FakeButAccurate — Caradoc (@DocSmiley1) December 19, 2014

H/T twitchy.com