Now of course sometimes it does make sense to point out a different person or institution is at fault. For example, if Alice saw a bad headline and wrongly blames Carol, the innocent columnist, and plans to angrily email Carol about it, you can gently point out it’s not Carol’s fault but her editor Eddie. Alice can angrily email Eddie instead, problem solved!
There may also be many other reasons to do this. Perhaps Alice is trying to decide whether Alice is a trustworthy journalist, and thus how much credibility to assign to things Alice writes, both that column and in the future. Knowing that Alice didn’t write the headline should mean that the badness of the headline should not factor into your opinion of Alice, but also that whatever warm glow of credibility that you have based on Alice being a good journalist should not extend to future headlines on Alice’s columns.
There may also be many other reasons to do this. Perhaps Alice is trying to decide whether Alice is a trustworthy journalist, and thus how much credibility to assign to things Alice writes, both that column and in the future. Knowing that Alice didn’t write the headline should mean that the badness of the headline should not factor into your opinion of Alice, but also that whatever warm glow of credibility that you have based on Alice being a good journalist should not extend to future headlines on Alice’s columns.