Perhaps, then, the authors should have published a critical review of existing social science literature and discussed flaws in methodology. That would be academically and ethically honest, and probably prompt a discussion and response from inside the field itself. Instead, they ran with their article to online news sites. Why would they do that first rather than trying to engage the academia themselves? Why did the researchers need to be shamed? See the quote I provided in my original comment by one of the reviewers who was fooled. She was personally embarrassed and thought the paper had come from a new entrant in the field, so she was charitable. Why is it acceptable that making people feel that way is the first course of action? It is not at all in the scientific spirit.

People have a right to know, of course - but so do researchers. Researchers in these fields have a right to know exactly what Boghossian and friends thought was wrong with their methodologies and research topics. Boghossian decided that was beneath him.