White House press secretary Robert Gibbs joked today about a license for punditry, in response to criticism from Sarah Palin about the Obama administration's response to the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

MR. GIBBS: Look, I've heard people on -- I've heard people say -- not want to offer conspiracy theories but say somehow that we've delayed our response for whatever reason. There have been notions made by people that even this was done intentionally. You know, again, I -- you got to have a license to drive a car in this country but regrettably you can get on a TV show and say virtually anything.

The very real problem is that misinformed claims like Palin's are far too often made, and repeated - despite the fact that they are untrue. In this case, Palin got it wrong on BP contributions to Obama. Previously she falsely claimed President Obama ran as a “quasi-conservative”, that the U.S. had apologized to China about the Arizona immigration law, that Obama wants to ban guns, and of course there was the “death panels” monstrosity. And those are just a few examples.

You don't need a license to practice punditry, but it probably isn't asking too much for someone like Palin to at least be minimally informed on the issues she goes on television to discuss. If we're having debates about serious issues (like national security, the environment, health care), the claims made should at least have some basis in reality, and not just be products of the imagination of a former governor.

So far Fox and Palin seem deeply uninterested in even the pretense of presenting informed punditry. In fact, they seem to revel in the lack of actual facts in Palin's work for the network so far. There aren't any licenses for punditry, but maybe somebody should get a ticket.