Most of your post I agree with. However, having seen how the system works, I'd never call the press with having vetted a prediction with various people in official positions.

Unlike EGF, I don't think my opinion should get airtime unless people like the SCEC Director, the CEPEC panel, and a number of people at the USGS also can be convinced. Even within my institute at UCLA, the university press people are more interested in publicizing a story when someone other than the investigators themselves notify them that some new results are news.

Science is rife with people who have lost perspective about their own ideas, and the review system exists and works, in my experience.

John