I was not using “hearsay” in a court of law but in this happy Corner, Randy, and hence in the sense appropriate to everyday conversation, which, my handy American Heritage dictionary informs me, is “gossip, talk, talk of the town, tittle-tattle, chat.”
This morning, in short, the L.A. Times made what had merely been vague tittle-tattle into charges that were concrete and specific–and Der Arnold then admitted that “there’s no smoke without fire.” To repeat, what had been hearsay became established fact.