&gt; Watson had been increasingly &#x27;a pariah&#x27; over the last few decades because of a long series of racist and sexist comments. It was not due to &quot;one failed joke.&quot;<p>I assumed he was talking about Hunt (although strictly speaking he&#x27;s a biochemist).<p>You&#x27;re right that journos have always had quick access to the public ear, but the internet makes this available to pretty much everybody else at zero cost. &quot;Everybody else&quot; outnumbers &quot;journos&quot; thousands to 1, with no editorial oversight or regulatory control. The Hunt story blew up because of Twitter. Imagine what Twitter would have looked like during Krakatoa, or the contemporary Jack-the-Ripper murders.