diff -u b/plugins/FeedsParser.inc b/plugins/FeedsParser.inc
--- b/plugins/FeedsParser.inc
+++ b/plugins/FeedsParser.inc
@@ -606,8 +606,8 @@
     }
 
     // If the timezone is null, use default timezone.
-    if (!$tz) {
-      $tz = new DateTimeZone(variable_get('date_default_timezone'));
+    if ($tz === NULL) {
+      $tz = variable_get('date_default_timezone');
     }
 
     // PHP < 5.3 doesn't like the GMT- notation for parsing timezones.