Fact Check

Did CNN Mislabel Alabama as Mississippi on Hurricane Dorian Weather Map?

The state of Alabama received some strange news coverage during Hurricane Dorian in the summer of 2019.

Published Sept. 3, 2019

Claim:
CNN mislabeled the state of Alabama as Mississippi on a weather map of Hurricane Dorian.

On Sept. 1, 2019, social media users shared a picture that supposedly showed a screenshot from a CNN broadcast featuring a weather map that mislabeled the state of Alabama as Mississippi:

This is a genuine screenshot from a CNN news broadcast.

This map appeared during an episode of "Early Start with Dave Briggs and Christine Romans." An official copy of this video is not readily available online. However, we were able verify the mistake on this map by viewing a third-party copy of the episode uploaded to YouTube. While that video has been removed due to copyright-infringement issues, we managed to capture the few seconds that this mislabeled map appeared on CNN:

We've reached out to "Early Start" for a comment on the mistake and will update this article if more information becomes available.

Some viewers may have been skeptical of this image for a few reasons. For one, viewers might have doubted that a major news network could make such a mistake. Also this image was circulated on the heels of another mistake involving the state of Alabama. U.S. President Donald Trump erroneously claimed that Alabama was in Hurricane Dorian's path, a statement that was quickly refuted by the National Weather Service:

CNN was one of the news outlets that criticized Trump for incorrectly saying that Alabama was in danger of being hit by Hurricane Dorian.

Sources

Falconer, Rebecca.   "National Weather Service Addresses Trump's Dorian Claim."     Axios.   2 September 2019.

Stelter, Brian.   "Trump Claimed Dorian Could Hit Alabama -- Even After Weather Service Refuted It."     CNN.   3 September 2019.

Dan Evon is a former writer for Snopes.