I was watching a sporting event this afternoon on TV.

One of the local meteorologists then began running a crawl across the bottom of the screen advising us of some changes in our weather conditions.

The crawl referred to “12 a.m.” OK, I guess it meant midnight. Or did it? Does 12 p.m., therefore, refer to noon? But … when is it ever a.m. or p.m. at the precise 12 o’clock hour?

I know, this is a minor gripe with all the other stuff going on in the world today.

But back when I was a full-time journalist writing news copy for newspapers, I was instructed — as I am sure reporters and copy editors are today — that you refer to the noon as “noon” and midnight as “midnight.”

Thus, you have no confusion, or even the hint of confusion you might get when you refer to one of those moments on the clock as 12 a.m. or 12 p.m.

Can’t we be clear about noon and midnight?

Maybe I’m missing something. Fill me in if there’s something I don’t quite understand.