If "Everyone Knows," Should the News Media Tell?

If “everyone knows” spicy details about a public official, should the news media report it?
Idaho Republican Sen. Larry E. Craig, arrested for alleged sexual overtures in an airport men’s room, apparently was widely known, or suspected, to be gay, which he still denies. It was the arrest that brought it out.
Former Florida Republican Rep. Mark Foley, who apparently liked male pages, had long been rumored to be gay. The scandal that forced him from office got it in the news media.
Former New Jersey Democratic Gov. Jim McGreevy was long suspected of being gay, but little was made of it until he resigned.
President John Fitzgerald Kennedy liked the ladies, but it didn’t make print.
New York Times columnist Abby Goodnough recently quoted journalism professor Jeff Jarvis asking about all these secrets kept, “Does it mean journalists are doing a good job, or does it mean they are doing a bad job?”
Some journalists, factoring in the reliability of the topic and the importance it might play in the elected official’s performance, would add the hypocrisy factor. There is probably nothing journalists would rather expose than hypocrisy. Craig had voted against pro-gay legislation at every opportunity.
The Internet may be changing the equation. It is unfiltered. Anything goes in the blogs, social networks, etc. If they don’t want to say it themselves, according to Jarvis, they can just offer a link to someone that does.
What should the mainstream media do and, further, exactly what is the mainstream any more?