A scientist will not release a statement unless he/she can prove it.
The only thing in your post I find dissagreement with is the above. The Scientific community is made up of the same % of sundry human personality variations as the rest of society.
Do some research on DDT, Global Warming, Global cooling, Ozone, Second hand smoke, Asbestos, Y2K etc and you'll soon see what I mean.
Since the advent of SETI the bar has been lowered on scientific integrity...lowered a very long way.