I don't think that is science from academia, but rather popular science that is trying to be speculative so Discovery will be tempted to make a tv-show about it..
Well, whatever it takes to get kids more interested in science... right? How many folks at SpaceX do you think started their careers as Star Wars junkies?
They knew Star wars was Scifi. What would the effect be if they joined to be part of something cool to find out it was nonsense?
I bet the History channel would do it. Half that channel is ghost shows anyways.