Is absolutely everything fair game for the press these days?

From the contours of John Kerry's war wounds to George Bush's failure to take a National Guard physical to a book's disputed allegations of drug use at Camp David, the media seem consumed these days with excavating the down-and-dirty past.

All too often the details are murky, the evidence secondhand, the documents doubted, the arguments driven by high-decibel partisanship.

"I don't think the media feel badly anymore covering 30-year-old wars or personal scandals," says Larry Sabato, a University of Virginia political scientist and press critic. "I don't think they feel particularly badly about publishing gossip and unproven allegations." ...

--Howard Kurtz, "Media Notes," in The Washington Post

Er, Whitewater, Howie? Not to mention Bill Clinton's draft status? Or even the burning question of whether Clinton "inhaled"?

Any of this ringing a bell for you, Howie? Do you have any memory of these discussions?