It's not just pop media though. There's a general attitude among many people I know who have advanced degrees in science that our current understanding is close to perfect, and that every correlation between two variables validates the entire theory that motivated the experiment. There's also a general attitude to just believe headlines and not look for authoritative or in-depth sources. The fact that pop media reports the way it does is a side effect of these underlying problems IMO. We ought to value accuracy in statements and healthy skepticism more than we do, I think.