Par for the course. It's just what passes for journalism now. The entire profession hasn't got half the credibility or a tenth the professionalism it did 20 years ago.
It seems most articles on online news sites, even the big network-affiliated ones, are written with 12th-grader insight and 8th-grade grammar. Even the layout sucks and is arranged to maximize pageviews and ad placement, not conveyance of actual information.
If the subject matter is something that you know ANYTHING about, you always know more than the reporter, who usually can't be bothered to even visit Wikipedia for a few minutes.
There isn't even lip service given to integrity any more. Fareed Zakaria still has an increasingly prominent jobs with CNN, Time, and the Washington Post despite flagrant and admitted plagiarism, and he's not exactly alone in the "proven bull****ter" category.
Add to that, the very deliberate shift in TV news from presentation of facts to delivery of opinion (because it sells better). The intent isn't to inform, but to inflame because controversy creates viewers and sells advertising.
There are few professions that cause me to so frequently reflexively/involuntarily utter out-loud words of contempt than journalists. It's a shame they do a terrible job, because they perform such a critical function for society.
