I think you'd be surprised at the number of people who have no idea about what usenet is. Dejanews still lives on in google discussion groups, and that may be the reason why it is mentioned as such, the reporter may very well realize this is not factual but does not want to spend 3 paragraphs explaining what usenet is, what it's rather complex ancestry is and where it ended up today.

It's a white lie. I read the article to the end, and it is actually a lot better than you'd think from that one basic mistake in the beginning.