Indeed, and part of the job of an exceptionally good developer is to avoid having the masses have to know about things they shouldn't need to know about. Don't laugh at people's ignorance when the whole point of User Interface/Experience Design is to ensure that people don't have to know how things work.

EDIT: coverdude in his/her reply to my comment makes an important point that I missed - it's not the masses being laughed at, it's the "journalist." Yes, point taken, the author really, really ought to know better.

If I didn't know how cookies worked, based on that statement I'd be against them and for the law automatically.

But of course, this is exactly what Google Analytics is.