Thanks in large part to the internet, "that dude in his boxers" now has access to the same raw information that used to be sole preserve of "journalists." He can see that they are filtering that information to fit their preconceived notions, i.e. that they are NOT using the scientific method. And the fact that he's calling them on it makes them very defensive.
There’s accountability as never before; the old-line media sources are vanishing; those which do not move to electronic distribution, and soon, won’t be around (the only exceptions being small-circulation small-town newspapers, which are mostly weeklies), maybe five years at the outside. The local garbage wrapper here spent massive cash on a supposedly state of the art printing facility in Walker; the paper is in multiple sections of course, but it’s left to the paper carriers to actually assemble it, and the one my mother has doesn’t do it, and often doesn’t include all the sections.