David Aaronovitch wrote…

” ‘Lobby terms’ are nothing more than a conspiracy against the citizen, who cannot tell who is speaking and therefore how to evaluate a story – other than to accept it at the journalist’s own evaluation. So the hack gets his or her story, the editor fills the page, the anonymous politician gets the point over (often in exaggerated form) at no cost to him or herself. And only the reader has no idea of what to make of it. This cowardly anonymity, effectively banned by American newspapers, has poisoned our political journalism.”