Journalism 101 or What I Learned in High School, but a Pro Didn't

I like offbeat humor, and thus I was attracted this article from CNN.com on old laws. However, while reading it, I was suddenly distracted...and for once it wasn't my short attention span...it was these randomly inserted paragraphs:

Sunsetting was included in important sections of the 2001 U.S. Patriot Act, passed by Congress shortly after the Sept. 11 attacks to give law enforcement agencies more tools to fight terrorism. Congress is now debating reauthorization and seems likely to make some changes.

"These hearings on the Patriot Act are exactly the kind of thing you want. Government doesn't spend enough time on oversight, looking at what's been done and how it's working," Edwards said.

President Bush's 2001 tax cuts also included sunset clauses; its provision are supposed to expire in 2010. However critics charge that this time, sunsetting was little more than a smokescreen, allowing Republicans to keep the projected costs of the tax cut within limits set by a congressional budget resolution.

Why are these here? They don't fit in with the rest of the story. In high school, I'm pretty sure my journalism teacher would have put a red 'x' through those paragraphs with the message "not relevant." And this guy from Reuters is a pro? Hey, I have an idea, lets bring up something that points out critism of the Bush Administration that's only remotely relevant to the rest of the article. Nice call, guys.