The reason conflicts of interest are disclosed isn’t to give carte blanche for writing about things in which you have a vested economic interest – it’s to assure that, in the event a conflict is inescapable and may color a reader’s view of the piece, it isn’t ignored. Check Washington Post op-ed bylines carefully — authors may be closer to their subjects than they appear.

Over the weekend, we teased Gabriel Sherman‘s The New Republic cover story on the flailing Washington Post — fallen from grace and under the new management of publisher Katharine Weymouth and editor Marcus Brauchli. Now, the entire story is available online and it’s exactly the extensive chronicle of dysfunction and mismanagement that we expected, beginning chiefly with WaPo‘s infamous salongate.

Future former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin wrote an op-ed piece for the Washington Post yesterday, in which she roundly dismissed the idea of cap-and-trade. The piece is generating quite a lot of discussion – but agree with her or not, cop to her expertise or not, Palin’s interconnectedness with energy policy is indisputable, making her voice newsworthy.