It seems that totally unhelpful news graphics are not exactly a new problem. Here is Mark Twain’s take on them, during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870:

TO THE READER.

The accompanying map explains itself.

The idea of this map is not original with me, but is borrowed from the “Tribune” and the other great metropolitan journals.

I claim no other merit for this production (if I may so call it) than that it is accurate. The main blemish of the city-paper maps of which it is an imitation, is, that in them more attention seems paid to artistic picturesqueness than geographical reliability. …[read more]

Original image courtesy of Mapping As A Process, which published a deep dive on all the different variants which have been published, their history and reception.