Imagine if you will, that a decade or more ago someone told you that if you really wanted to build your journalism career tearing down scientists, you needed to look at diet and nutrition research. You picked up a copy of Atkins and lost a couple of pounds. You began cultivating your schtick that simple obesity (the kind of the epidemic) was not about overeating or sedentary behavior, it was something else. And you received three-quarters of a million dollars to research and write a book. The book was a best seller and garnered you a cult following in certain circles and you were off to the races giving talks around the globe.
There were doctors and others who bought into your hypothesis, spreading the word as fact and growing the movement. But a following from one segment of the population remained elusive: scientists. Rather than address the reasons why (serious holes in your hypothesis), you double down and trash scientists more openly and frequently. You also publish a second book with a dumbed down, even less scientific, hypothesis. By all indications, this book falls far short of expectations ... and still the scientists are not coming around. Worse still, many who had believed your hypothesis was plausible, at least worthy of investigation, were abandoning it.
