While I see the irony, it also seems to me there is justification for this kind of thinking.
We routinely encounter people who are very knowledgeable about one subject, and yet utterly clueless about another. It's not a big stretch to apply that to institutions.
As a astronomer, I always had the impression that most mainstream media and many people in general were pretty ignorant about science, but I would assume they knew "human" subjects better.