The media are often a mouthpiece for the highest bidder when we're talking about their billionaire owners, and multinationals spending a lot on advertising, and industry press wanting access to exclusive previews, and industries handing out freebies like 'review samples' and flying people to product launches in exotic locations.
However, academic climate scientists are none of these. More likely journalists see "stanford climate scientist" saying something that seems right to them, and they don't look much further than that.