Sloppy, sloppy

When I was young, I had complete respect for journalism. I thought that journalists were very careful to get the facts straight and use correct grammar, and, in those rare occasions when they weren't careful, I believed that there were editors who would step in and fix the problems before the stories went to publication.

I don't know whether I was wrong in the past or if things have changed in more recent times, but I keep seeing stories written with really sloppy writing and bad facts. Rather than shake my head and ignore them, I think I'd rather shake my head and then post them here.

I'll start it off with this one-paragraph blurb from CBS MarketWatch talking about some problems at LAX Airport.  The problem this story is in the time conversion. The text says that the halt in flights began at 2:20 pm "local time," which in Los Angeles would be Pacific time, but the writer then converts that time to 11:20 am Eastern.  Yes there is a three-hour time difference between Los Angeles and Eastern time, but Eastern time is three hours later than Pacific time. At 2:20 pm in Los Angeles, it 5:20 pm on the East Coast; it's 11:20 am in Honolulu (at least during the summer).

Maybe this seems ticky-tacky, but this time conversion is not a complicated fact.  The story is just sloppy.

Airfares Make No Sense

Look at the following screenshot

This is a search for a one-way flight from Salt Lake City to Sacramento on Friday, June 6, 2014.   There are four non-stop flights on the route, although I'm showing only two of them in the screenshot, and all four of them are $500 for the one-way flight.

Now, examine the next screenshot, which depicts a search for a roundtrip flight on the same route:

The flights on the outbound portion of the roundtrip itinerary are precisely the same flights that are shown in the one-way search above, but, by flying rountrip, these flights are $126 cheaper than the one-way.

The lesson here is obvious:  If you need to fly one-way on this date, buy a roundtrip ticket and throw away the return portion of the trip.  You'll get your one-way trip for $374 instead of $500.