Gossip columns, and gossip columnists, feed a public craving for information about the rich, the prominent, and the powerful—particularly if that information is secretive and scandalous. Gossip columns are crammed with tidbits, some true and some rumor, about a movie star's love life or a politician's or business leader's behind-closed-doors dealings. To a gossip columnist, privacy is a dirty word. If you are a celebrity, no aspect of your life is beyond the scrutiny of a gossip. Ultimately, gossip serves the purpose of blurring the separation between those in power and the masses. In this regard, a gossip columnist's revelations about a celebrity's private life are the price to be paid for fame, power, or wealth.

Before the 1920s, mainstream journalism reflected an ethic in which respectability ruled, and fact took precedence over rumor. Periodicals such as Town Topics, which published tid-bits about the wealthy...