I definitely hear that. In fact, Krugman wrote a piece along these lines, arguing that many journalists are very uncomfortable dealing with data. Instead of looking at lots of data and trying to draw conclusions, they want some magical insider to tell them what's really happening.
It is not often that I find myself agreeing with Krugman (who likes to ignore data that does not fit his views). But in this case -- possibly because no data is actually invovled -- I agree completely.
And unfortunately, that's true for most of the people, most of the time - if you asked your physician to substantiate any non-trivial recommendation he makes, you'd find that data supporting those recommendations is severely lacking or irrelevant. But most people want the magical insider (the doctor, in this case) to tell them what's happening, rather than the facts.
http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/10/30/scoop-dupes/