My gut instinct is that journalists ought to leave these young people alone. Bristol Palin is famous only because her mother ran for vice president, and Levi is semi-famous because he happened to be the boyfriend who knocked up the daughter. Neither one, in other words, asked to be a public figure.

But here’s the rub. Gov. Palin trotted out Levi at the Republican convention and said he’d be marrying her daughter, all to present a nice family image for her debut as John McCain’s running mate.

Once you do that, you can’t hide the kids behind a curtain when things go sour.

And Bristol did an interview a few weeks back with Greta Van Susteren of Fox News in which she said Levi was playing an important role in the baby’s life and did not mention the breakup. Under those circumstances, you can hardly blame Levi for wanting to tell his side of the story.