They believe this is the intelligence level of the average American.

Before I threw my TV out, I noticed that on the network news channels when talking about some incident that had happened in another part of the world, for instance in Tahiti, they would say an island in the South Pacific.

One time something happened in Moldova and they simply said, "in an eastern European country...". They likely assumed if they came right out and said Moldova, their viewers would think to themselves, what in the hell is a Moldova?!

Admittedly many Americans have terrible geography skills, especially those who rely on the tv for all of their information.