Avoiding stories about failures in politicians' families and relationships is tough call to make

I never wrote about former Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards and his recent misstep in his marriage. That is between him and his courageous wife and not for purient public consumption.

Call it censorship, but each media outlet needs standards as to the information the public needs to know.

As for blogs, that is still a gray area. I'm not a media outlet. But the information put out across the Internet sometimes forces the actual media to cover rumors to see what's accurate.

That's what happened with a story that emerged today about the daughter of GOP VP pick Gov. Sarah Palin being pregnant. Liberal bloggers started spreading the rumor that became truth. But they also speculated that the governor's 17-year-old daughter was the mother of Palin's newborn.

The girl is 17 and five months pregnant. The child is five months old. So the biological math here does not work. Palin is the mother of her newborn.

I'm not condemning bloggers. Sometimes the smoke they produce does signal fire. I'm not condemning the media, either. The Internet does sometimes force coverage of a story they'd rather avoid.

I'm just explaining that I would have written about Palin's daugther earlier. But as with John Edwards, I just don't believe such personal family matters are newsworthy when it comes to the fitness of someone to serve the people.

And they're certainly not enough to take needed space and airtime on issues public servants should address if elected.