"with a map and asked about 40 Americans to put a pin where they thought Australia was, over 50% put it in America"
The US is a different place. It is definitely more socially stratified or polarized than most nations. There are either very educated intelligent people or incredibly ignorant people. Unfortunately, the ignorant people tend to attract more attention and create a major image problem for the U.S. There is no way the TV show 'survey' is a statistically valid way to draw conclusions about American society. First of all New York is probably one of the most myopic insular self-centered regions of the U.S. Also, the more intelligent educated people were probably busy working instead of wandering around Times Square.
Still, it is ubelievable how ignorant a lot of Americans are, especially in this global communication era made possible by the internet.