Sounds like journalism generally
The idea is stated succinctly as Knoll's Law of Media Accuracy:
"Everything you read in the newspapers is absolutely true except for the rare story of which you happen to have firsthand knowledge."
The earliest instance I found of Erwin Knoll's quote is from 1982[0]. I suspect either Michael Crichton or Gell-Mann had heard this quote, which in turn influenced their discussion.
[0] https://www.nytimes.com/1982/02/27/us/required-reading-smith...
Reminds me of "the Gell-Mann Amnesia effect".
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Crichton#GellMannAmnes...
In short: trusting a source on topics you're unfamiliar with, but when the source talks about topics you are familiar with, you realize it's full of errors, but then turn the page and then trust it again on further topics you're unfamiliar with.