Poner en la picota

Poner en la picota
 

I think it means echar la culpa (to put the blame on). Is it commonly used?

The GDO gives a different meaning:

picota femenino
A (Historia) pillory; poner a alguien en la picota to put somebody on the spot; poner algo en la picota to call something into question

I would say it is by journalists. I have probably never said it.
I agree with GDO.
By the way, is the verb "pillory" commonly used in English? I have seen there is a number of results for "pilloried" in Google. I think you have just one word for our four ones.

PS. Picota in Spanish can also be a kind of cherry.

It wouldn't be understood in Mexico... or perhaps in context... :thinking:

I think our colloquial equivalent might be:
·Sacar a alguien a balcón / Balconear a alguien

Some other expressions, more generally understood, may be:
·Poner a alguien en ridículo / ridiculizar a alguien
·Exhibir a alguien
·Hacer escarnio de alguien
...

Very common here -yet I'm not sure people plenty understand it-, it doesn't equate to echar la culpa at all.

Poner a A en la picota means something like "if you think there's something wrong, that there may be someone to blame, or that doubts have been raised about something, well, (look carefully what A does/ analyse carefully what A did) and everything that surrounds this person", so, the "put somebody on the spot/call something into question" is not bad.

Yes, in BrE. The pillory (or stocks) were a popular punishment in medieval times, and is still used metaphorically (i.e. somebody being critized by everybody, equivalent to having stuff thrown at them by the whole village)

Too sophisticated. This picota is "better":

http://buscon.rae.es/draeI/SrvltGUIBusUsual?LEMA=picota

The term I know for stocks is cepo. Obviously picota is another term. Maybe the term in English is: to shine a light on him/her for all to see. This being used in a negative way when poner en picota is used.