Perhaps beside the point, but part of journalism is good writing and the topic of the article includes writing quality.
"... turned out to be a MacGuffin, a detail that was very much beside the point..." -- is the reporter showing off he knows the word MacGuffin? He simply defines it immediately afterward making the word needless.
As Strunk and White says, "Avoid fancy words: Avoid the elaborate, the pretentious, the coy, and the cute. Do not be tempted by a twenty-dollar word when there is a ten-center handy, ready and able.
Then "Even a broken clock is right twice a day, but there is nothing in Mr. Padrick’s professional history or the public record that I found to suggest he is any of those things..." ... using old cliches doesn't help either. It just adds words with no meaning.
"... turned out to be a MacGuffin, a detail that was very much beside the point..." -- is the reporter showing off he knows the word MacGuffin? He simply defines it immediately afterward making the word needless.
As Strunk and White says, "Avoid fancy words: Avoid the elaborate, the pretentious, the coy, and the cute. Do not be tempted by a twenty-dollar word when there is a ten-center handy, ready and able.
Then "Even a broken clock is right twice a day, but there is nothing in Mr. Padrick’s professional history or the public record that I found to suggest he is any of those things..." ... using old cliches doesn't help either. It just adds words with no meaning.