This is gold. You'd think fatlogic like this is exactly what rationalism is supposed to overcome.
Some people like this DO exist, they just don't make it their whole personality.
A public, practice-what-you-preach version of this is Menno Henselmans, a fitness trainer. He started with a degree in Behavioral Economics because his parents wanted him to get an MBA, so he knew stuff like Bayesian reasoning and mixed this with his training. He eventually pivoted to fitness and actually does research with people who know what they're talking about (e.g. Brad Schoenfeld, the top-cited guy in this field) and this research is published in real journals, not an obscure institute. He also does not give off cult vibes. In terms of being "rational" he's one of the more rational people I know of, he's just not famous for this because he's never written about AI / singularity / transhumanism / whatever and hasn't started a cult of personality. He's a very fit guy with a good career, that's it.
I know another guy like this, who is an extremely successful corporate lawyer who has done Brazilian Jiu Jitsu for 10+ years and took his fitness so seriously it looks like he aged in reverse. Since he's an extremely private person that's the most I can dish.
But both of these people don't have much to hide. The trainer has nothing to hide — he's not shy about interviews. The lawyer has attorney-client privilege to worry about.
People like Eliezer/Aella are fronting; they adopted this "I hate journalists" attitude after-the-fact. And they have a lot to hide,
and they're inept at talking to normal people.
There were many,
many reasons to distrust media before the Scott episode happened, which a website like newsdiffs would clue you in on.
A friend of mine made a post about how Scott Alexander wasn't
really doxxed by the traditional definition (i.e. a dossier of your info, such as address/phone/etc) — this friend was blocked
basically in unison, by the entire community, even though his point isn't really wrong. The LessWrong rationalists only started their anti-media attitude after one of their own (Scott) was in the spotlight and got personally affected by it; after that, it occurred to them how poorly they, themselves, could look. They don't have a distrust of media due to integrity or epistemic standards or whatever else. They are not Noam Chomsky reading the newspaper and grinding their teeth at the factual inaccuracies. They're worried about covering their ass, and what happens if they can't.