Actually, Politico allowed guest opinion writers take a factually inaccurate cheap shot at TPM. But Politico still takes the blame. It has control over its editorial content and should not allow outside opinion writers to simply fabricate claims.

That's what conservative Gary Bauer and his co-writer Daniel Allott did in their pro-Palin piece for Politico:

Why Trig has divided America

The premise was rather dubious, to say the least. Palin's newborn Down syndrome son had really “divided” America? There was a large faction that somehow opposed him? That's simply absurd. But Bauer and Allott did their best to prop up the notion. And they even had proof that (liberals) had written nasty things about young Trig:

At Talking Points Memo, an article sarcastically suggested that Palin resigned because “she wants to spread Down syndrome ... because Down syndrome is just too cute to be reserved for one in 800 births.”

Wow, an “article” in the highly respected Talking Points Memo trashed Palin and her son in such a derogatory manner? According to Bauer and Allott, that was the case. And the right-wing Free Republic had also recently made that point:

The liberal Talking Points Memo website, which is deemed a respectable political site by the mainstream media which regularly quotes from their articles, published an article last night that speculated Alaska Governor Sarah Palin resigned because “she wants to spread Down syndrome.” Palin's infant son Trig was born last year with Down syndrome.

What the heck is going on over at TPM?? Do editors there have no decency?!

Well, if I have to explain how the blogosphere works to Free Republic and Bauer/Allott (and Politico), I will. Sites like TPM have what are called diaries where readers can create their own content and post it online. It is sort of the cyber-equivalent to callers on AM talk radio shows. Meaning, they say whatever they want but nobody thinks the radio talk show host has any control over caller content, and nobody thinks the host is responsible for what comes out of callers' mouth.

In this Palin case, the ill-advised “800 births” comment was posted within a TPM reader diary. It was not an “article.” It was not prepared by a TPM staffer, it was not edited and it was not okayed by the site. It was a reader comment. Period.

So why did Politico let conservatives take that kind of cheap shot at a hallmark netroots site?