> The numerous successful academics at reputable universities that I know (including me) are uniformly mortified when our names are associated with mistaken interpretations in the press. Some of us (including me) simply stop doing press interviews because it happens so often.

Absolutely! You're one of the good ones! I just wish you were in the majority. :-(

Edit: that's unfair. I don't know if you're in the majority or minority. I want to believe that most academics are still just silently plugging away and doing good work. It just really feels like things have shifted to the huckster side of the spectrum, and/or that is what is rewarded.

The hucksters would be over represented in the media for obvious reasons, and if you are not an academic, then you would primarily be exposed to academics via the media. Hundreds of thousands of academics doing great work, you only hear from a few dozen of them.

I was an academic in a past life. I left before I made it a profession, but I spent long enough there to see what I'm talking about. The people with the most successful careers get there by getting press, which doesn't usually correlate with academic rigor.

That said, I grant your broader point about selection bias.

> If you want to find an incentive to get undeserved attention

I think social media - such as HN comments that shoot down almost every OP without fail - is by far the best example? Most comments on social media on such things seek attention for being smarter-than-though and have no basis in anything, including the comment at the top of this thread by 'gidmkhealthnerd'.

> All the opposite of the academic world.

The pure academic world and the evil Media! If you're an academic, maybe we can something better than joining the mob against the bogeyman.

> such as HN comments that shoot down almost every OP without fail

If the OP can't handle criticism it's hard to argue that the attention is deserved