They missed a lot of important details, focusing only on work done by the institute and they hype up the high reading with no mention of drastically different low readings
My guess? Two reasons. 1) It's not exactly hard news and 2) They had a word count limit. That's just the way it works. And it's a good lesson for any business that has a story written about them to be as concise, short and sweet as possible with their information bits. Because not all you say will make it in the story 99% of the time. And since the subject is NOT the journalist, the journalist has control over what content is published. Lack of full information doesn't make "bad" journalism unless its lying by omission.
The concentration on the work done by the institute is because they localized the story. It's where NMSU is based, and therefore why the story was written at all. It's a common journalistic practice, and actually exactly what they should be doing if you expect the piece to run at all.
And finally, the author is probably making $25K a year to cover eight beats with no benefits. It's a hell of a business to be in. Under constant scrutiny, with no one happy with what you write all the time, getting paid junk and treated like a vagabond and a mule. No respect.