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Fox News nails Iran coverage by announcing historic nuclear deal was signed with ... Iraq

One Twitter user caught the moment the US broadcaster appeared to report some rather unexpected news

Alexander Sehmer
Thursday 16 July 2015 10:47 BST
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A demonstrator holds a mock-up of a nuclear missile as he protests against Iran's nuclear program and regime in front the Palais Coburg in Vienna
A demonstrator holds a mock-up of a nuclear missile as he protests against Iran's nuclear program and regime in front the Palais Coburg in Vienna

Negotiators took 20 months to reach a deal with Iran on its nuclear programme, but for a moment yesterday Fox News appears to have thought the historic deal had been reached with Iraq.

That's Iraq, the country which Iran fought a bloody eight-year war with in the 1980s. A country that has been in the news a little itself in recent years.

The apparent mistake seems to have been noticed by Twitter user @DudeInDistress, who posted what appears to be a screenshot from Fox's coverage of the moment the deal went through using the hashtag #IranDeal.

The #IranDeal hashtag trended all of yesterday on the social media site as users commented on the deal and posted images of celebrations marking a diplomatic move that looks set to return Iran to the international fold.

Fox has had geographical troubles before, once displaying a map of the Middle East that presented Egypt as positioned between Syria and Iran, in place of Iraq.

The demands of 24-hour TV news can present a challenge for broadcasters and Fox is not the only channel to have encountered this kind of problem.

In 2013 CNN displayed a map that showed Hong Kong located somewhere in the east of Brazil.

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