This photograph appeared on the CNN website this past week. It's part of an article about the low flows on the Mississippi River. You can view the article here.
While I don't think the article was intended to mislead people, the use of this photo is deceptive in my opinion. The caption reads as follows:
The Mississippi River at Memphis -- shown here near the Memphis-Arkansas Bridge -- has slowed to a trickle. It was at its fifth-lowest level on record this week and continues to drop.
Actually, that's the Hernando DeSoto Bridge in the photo. The Memphis-Arkansas Bridge is a mile or so downstream. But the thing I take issue with is the suggestion that the little puddle pictured here is all there is of the Mississippi at Memphis right now. It's not. Just look at the last two photos in the post I put up yesterday. As I said, even at historic low flows the Mississippi is a very big, very powerful river.
Maybe I shouldn't get upset about this. But I constantly encounter people in our society whose understanding of basic river hydrology and continental drainage is shockingly poor. We don't need an ostensibly serious news organization making that problem worse.
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