"this year" news and stories

Now, I'm usually not one to split hairs, but as I read this AP story about this year's crop of watermelons in Georgia, I found the following sentence a little odd: "Watermelons are often viewed as a fruit, but they technically are a vegetable, related to cucumbers, pumpkins and squash." Last I checked, all of those were fruits. I'm no botanist, but I know that watermelons are the seed-bearing parts of the vines that they grow on. Anyone with more knowledge of the plant kingdom care to weigh in? As for this year's Georgia watermelons, they're supposed to be some of the sweetest ones seen in recent years. Apparently all the recent dry heat has something to do with that.