...feared or marginalized by the mainstream media should be reserved for the badge of honor. Noam Chomsky comes to mind.
I don't know about that. IME Noam Chomsky is pretty much respected by anyone who knows who he is. Granted, that is a relatively small percentage of the public. The only people I have ever heard bash on Chomsky are philosophers who disagree with very specific philosophical views that he holds (innate grammatical knowledge comes to mind).