NBC publishes wacky fire map, then Time magazine thinks Sydney is right near Perth

OH, NOT AGAIN. First NBC publishes the worst Aussie fires map ever. Then Time Magazine screws virtually everything up.

OK, this is now just becoming depressing.

Hot on the heels of America's NBC News publishing a map which grossly overstated the extent of out-of-control blazes in New South Wales, Time magazine has made a few bloopers of its own.

On Wednesday, Time published a story with the following rather provocative headline: Climate Change Affects Australia's Epic Wildfires - No Matter What Prime Minister Says.

We'll leave the debate over the link between climate change and this particular fire emergency for another day.

What's worth mentioning here is that Time magazine mentioned in an earlier version of its story that New South Wales was in southwestern Australia.

Hey, you only missed by 3000km or so guys. That's like putting Washington DC in San Diego. No biggie.

And there were more. We'll let Time's diligent corrections people speak for themselves.

• An earlier version of this article misstated that New South Wales is in southwestern Australia. It is in southeastern Australia.

• An earlier version of this article misstated the name of the executive secretary of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change. She is Christiana Figueres, not Christina.

• An earlier version of this article misstated the name of a former Prime Minister of Australia. She is Julia Gillard, not Gilliard.

All of which begs the question: Is it that hard for these supposedly reputable American media outlets to write a story getting a few basic facts right about little old Australia?

That's a rhetorical question but we'll answer it anyway. Yes, apparently it is.

NBC's problem was that it took a Geoscience Australia satellite map of every fire currently burning in Australia (including hazard-reduction burns) and assumed they were all part of this week's disaster.

Time's problem could be that they haven't got the hang of the internet yet. Either that or they didn't spend enough of it (time, that is) checking a simple thing called a map.