A linguistic irritant XXVII

Whenever anyone says an event is "slated to begin" at a certain time, I think, "Why not just say, 'It will begin' at the scheduled time?  Admittedly, 'slated to begin' is usually more accurate.  A meeting scheduled for 10:00 might actually start at 9:58 or 10:03.  Still, "will begin" is more concise and sounds more natural.