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.