From news article to gossip column in three sentences
Today's News Sentinel carries this story on its front page which details yesterday's testimony by County Commissioner R. Larry Smith. Smith testified about his observations and his role in the process leading up to Black Wednesday, the subject of News Sentinel Editor Jack McElroy's current lawsuit against County Commission.
Smith's testimony recounts the back-room dealing of which he was aware, and his attempts to contravene that dealing with a more public, open process for naming replacement officers. His testimony is compelling because he directly contradicts County Commissioners Moore and Bolus, who insisted no back-room dealing occurred. It's made more compelling due to the fact that Smith was called to the stand by the Commission's lawyers, yet he ended up becoming one of the plaintiffs' star witnesses.
Overall, the article is well-written; the narrative tone is kept neutral, and Smith's testimony is quoted in enough depth to let his own words paint the picture. However, one jarringly out-of-place paragraph in today's article throws the entire thing out of balance, transforming it from a news article into a gossip piece:
Smith's testimony had tongues wagging about whether Moore and Bolus perjured themselves on the witness stand and what, if any, prosecution might result. Perjury cases are rarely pursued because they are difficult to prove. It would be up to Knox County District Attorney General Randy Nichols to decide whether to pursue a perjury prosecution.
Those three sentences, which can only be read aloud in a stage whisper, contaminate the entire article. Suddenly, the tone and thrust of the article shift from a news story to that of a gossip column. Each of those three sentences uses some form of the word "perjury," and the entire paragraph centers on nothing more than idle speculation.
If that one paragraph were excised, this would have been one of the News Sentinel's better stories covering the trial. As it stands, it reads like it was written by Hedda Hopper or Louella Parsons. Or maybe Matt Drudge.