Editor and Publisher has a bone to pick with the Government using “anonymous sources”

“First it was Michael Gordon in The New York Times on Saturday. Now The Washington Post and other media outlets have joined in suggesting a slam dunk case for Iranian weapons killing Americans in Iraq.

An article by Joshua Partlow from Baghdad — long atop the Post’s Web site — first carried the declarative headline, “Iran Sending Explosives to Extremist Groups in Iraq,” without even “U.S. officials say.”

Not that those officials could be named anyway. As in case of Michael Gordon’s article, the officials are unnamed.

The Associated Press, The New York Times, Reuters and others also reported on a briefing in Baghdad on Sunday, agreeing beforehand to the condition that none of the three U.S. officials taking part could be named or even described closely.

The Times, after accepting the terms, found itself in the embarrassing position of reporting, “During the briefing, the senior United States military officials were repeatedly pressed on why they insisted on anonymity in such an important matter affecting the security of American and Iraqi troops.”

Of course E&P is a leftist organization who camps on the “Bush lied” mantra and so having them get upset about anonymous sources being used for the Iran/Iraq question I quess is understandable. I mean it’s not like Bob Woodward channeling sources or anything like that.