When announcing her 17-year-old daughter's pregnancy on Monday in response to rumors circulating on the internet, Alaska Governor and Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin appealed for the media to respect her daughter's privacy.

So far, the mainstream press hasn't responded to Palin's entreaties. But at a time when anyone can set up a blog and be considered "media," would it make the slightest difference if they did? It's clear that some bloggers will continue to push the story to the ends of the Earth.

"You can't get away from the fact that there are incredibly sensationalist elements to this story," says Kelly McBride, The Poynter Institute's ethics group leader. But she says the story about Bristol Palin's pregnancy would have become news with or without bloggers.

"Keeping that one a secret would have been a long-shot," she says.

That means it's not a question of whether the media should continue to cover the story, but how they do it, she says. The media has an opportunity to provide context and to responsibly shape the tone of the debate.

"There's a sense of schadenfreude to the coverage, in the sense of, 'Oh, look at this beautiful conservative family, what a shame. I think the tone of that might actually backfire, since I don't think this situation of a teen pregnancy [is that unusual]"

Liberal bloggers spread a rumor online this weekend that Palin's four-month-old son Trig is actually her daughter Bristol's. That prompted Palin to break the news about her daughter's pregnancy.

But reporters on the campaign trail don't need to continue to push the issue, McBride says. Instead, they could refocus the bloggers'

partisan rhetoric and translate it into a substantive policy story.

"The story is not what the Republican stance on teen pregnancy is – that's such a dumb, shallow political question," she says. "The question is what is the reality of teen pregnancy in the United States, and how is it affected by public policy?"

McBride says that journalists have a responsibility to check out the rumors floated on the blogs in order to get at the facts for readers, and she cites the media's late response to John Edwards extra-marital affair, uncovered by the National Enquirer, as journalistic malfeasance. But reporting the story doesn't have to come at the expense of Palin's daughter Bristol.

"You have to find a way to minimize the harm to minors, meaning that you don't stick the paparazzi on them, or stake out their schools, and you wouldn't engage in the full-frontal assault as you might on other personalities in the news," she says. "But ultimately, your loyalty to your audience is greater."

Even if mainstream news organizations exercised restraint in their reporting on Sarah Palin's daughter, that might not necessarily dampen down the public's attention on the subject, notes Jay Rosen, a journalism professor at New York University, and author of the popular journalism blog PressThink. Nevertheless, he agrees there are ways to navigate around the story responsibly.

"I agree that her 17-year-old daughter's life should be kept out of public life," he says. "I think there is something to asking the press to lay off, because within the campaign security perimeters, the only people who can ask questions are the political reporters."

Ultimately, reporters should ask themselves how their stories serve their readers, says McBride.

"One of the ways is that you acknowledge the complexity of teen pregnancy, and you don't reduce stories to political platitudes," she says.