In addition to the lush funding of science in pursuit of political objectives, many of today's "scientists" have learned they can obtain their 15 minutes of fame by making dramatic (but not peer-reviewed) announcements to the media.
Frankly, I don't think "peer-reviewed" means anything anymore. First, if it doesn't agree with the herd, it is unlikely that a paper will even be accepted in a peer-reviewed publication. Second, soothsayers don't make a practice of calling each other out as fakes. If one climate scientist would point out that climate modelling is inherently a joke, then no model (and no grant money) is safe.