There are many things I happily admit I know nothing about, though after having ingested The Discourse into my brain for 25 years, I am also very sure that most people who are presented as wise experts on most subjects know little more than I do about them.
This predates "bloggers" and social media. Influential opinion columnists have long held forth on whatever occurred to them in the shower that morning. TV producers and editors enlist people because they are buzzy, because they have good PR, because they fill a spot on the political spectrum that they think needs to be filled. Bari Weiss is gone from the New York Times, but people like her (not necessarily sharing her views, but equally (un)qualified and (un)intelligent) still influence who gets published there. And, of course, she runs CBS News.
Most people who know things don't have the inclination or time to set themselves up as "public intellectuals" or even to bother submitting an oped to "Bari" for her approval. They certainly don't have time to wait for cable news producers to call them.
Dash Sulzberger, son of Pinch, grandson of Punch, great-grandson of Arthur Hays Sulzberger, great-great-grandson of Adolph Ochs, is the latest in the long line of nepo babies who run the Times. This is meritocracy.
Dash is, obviously, dumb as shit. Everything in that newspaper flows from him.
Experts, or people who actually know things, would be nice. We rarely meet them.