Oh, not at all. They are not idiots. That paper was written with a purpose which was properly met (mainly getting to publish and, to a lesser extent, to confirm

Oh, not at all. They are not idiots. That paper was written with a purpose which was properly met (mainly getting to publish and, to a lesser extent, to confirm a previous notion or bias). The issue is reporting of results to the public. Someone feeds mice a ridiculous amount of salt and notices they have some health issues. Let's assume for an instant that this is somehow useful for some reason (I mean, salt poisoining has been known for millenia and people actually commit suicide by drinking saturated salt solutions). Even in that case, journalists are still distilling the whole thing into "more salt is bad", which is what the average person will understand. The general public doesn't read scientific literature with a critical thinking mindset, if at all.