It's not even like the detail I'm harping on is all that technical. If you understand the concept of URLs, then you're already 95% of the way there. An MX record, in essence, links a mail with a particular domain/site url. That's it.
"What's [an] MX record? I don't know." is a logical question most people would have. I strongly suspect any newspaper editor would ask such a detail be included in an article of theirs. This sort of thing is what they're traditionally paid to do (and still are to an extent), and is a habit of a good researcher. If they're taking on too many stories to cover in the detailed and nuanced way they take pride in, then they should re-evaluate their show schedule instead of rushing through it all to meet self-imposed deadlines.
Not even bothering to look into it is the overarching problem here.