Barack Obama still smokes the occasional cigarette when his children aren't looking. Richard M. Nixon thought abortion might be a "necessary" option to deal with interracial pregnancies. And South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford flew to Argentina to meet his girlfriend and was not out hiking the Appalachian Trail, as his aides had told reporters.

In each case, a public official had a piece of information that he would have preferred to keep private, and in each case the news media saw fit to look deeper and ferret it out.

But is every interesting story fair game?

One thing that seems clear is that the more such stories are reported, the less shocking they'll be.

If people stop caring about such news, newspapers, television and even bloggers will grow increasingly blase as well. That's the way it's always worked.