Also, "the media" aren't scientists. They're journalists. Reddit is quick to complain about the way science is reported in many cases, but Reddit also generally isn't fond of paying money for news. Guess what? Reporting done by actual scientific experts who are also competent journalists is not compatible with our adblock using, aggregator loving, paywall hating culture of media consumption. "The media" isn't a fucking charity, and well researched expert reporting is really expensive. When you read articles that are the product of a 24 year old googling something and then maybe calling a local college professor for comment, you're getting exactly what you're paying for.
Scientists (and experts of all stripes, really) have a real responsibility to stay in your own goddamn lane *, especially on subjects of significance. If you're an oceanographer, refrain from commenting on virology in the middle of a pandemic. It's phenomenally irresponsible to say "as a scientist..." and then comment on something for which you have no specialized knowledge whatsoever. Everyone's blaming the media - what about the *actual scientist who was called to comment as an expert and then blithely speculated about something that they absolutely 100% should not be speculating about.
Expertise is not fungible. Call it the Ben Carson effect if you want - very smart successful people in very specialized fields often tend to think they're qualified to comment on other fields. They end up actually being more harmful than a average layman, because they couple the same level of ignorance with a pile of unjustified confidence. I've also heard attorneys repeat something to the effect of "no lawyer was ever as knowledgeable about the law as a client with an MD".
Everyone wants to give their opinion when asked. But if you're being questioned as an expert, it's vitally important that you recognize the limits of your expertise and avoid attaching your credibility to ignorance. It's not just damaging to the immediate situation - it also contributes to a distrust of expertise in general. Joe Sixpack doesn't know that an oceanographer has very little to offer in terms of infectious disease expertise. He just sees conflicting reports from "scientists" and assumes that nobody really knows what's going on.