All of us who post on TPM make mistakes, and most of us figure we have to live with them. If something we write is criticized, we might want to argue with the critics, we might concede the point, or we might just shut up and let others judge the merits of the disagreement. One thing we don't do is hide the evidence in order to pretend that the material we wrote was never written, or if it was, that the criticisms were never made. At least most of us don't do that. Whatever our mistakes, we don't descend to a level of dishonesty and moral cowardice that conceals those mistakes from the scrutiny of others after they've been committed - as though they never happened.

Recently, one regular TPM participant, Jacob Freeze, did that at least twice. Freeze, who goes by the TPM pseudonym of Rutabaga Ridgepole, wrote blog items that others criticized severely for perceived inaccuracies. Rather than defend his material, or concede error, Freeze/Ridgepole deleted both blogs along with the criticisms. In one case, the deleted items seem to have disappeared forever. In the second, the blog material reappeared, but without the criticisms. Instead, Freeze/Ridgepole substituted his own comments for the ones he deleted.

Readers will react to this with different degrees of concern, but at least some of us are likely to view these attempts to create a false impression as a breach of moral integrity unworthy of TPM. There are other things in the world more important than this, and so I hesitated before deciding this was worth mentioning. Was I only trying to express my own anger, because my criticisms were among those deleted in both instances, or was I hoping to help other TPM readers better judge what they read? I decided the answer was both. I also hesitated because unlike some, I don't look forward to the insults that are likely to fly when someone is criticized for character flaws, but I figured I could put up with them. If someone wants to point out my flaws, of which I have my share, I may dispute some of the criticisms, but I won't pretend no-one made them.

What should anyone else do? Josh Marshall may want to revisit guidelines for deleting posts, but that's up to him. My suggestions to other TPM participants are the following:

1. If it happens again, call attention to it, and refrain from discussing the topic of the blog until Freeze allows all views to remain available.

2. If you write a lengthy comment on one of his blogs, save a copy to your hard drive as a backup, so that if he pretends it never happened, you'll be able to show others that it did.