There are two ways to garner traffic online. You can write interesting, insightful, articulate articles over a long period or you can ride the coattails of those who already have.
As someone trying to find my own voice online I get annoyed when I see the later. The irrationality of this annoyance is the power of a link-baiter. Making your point by saying misleading things about someone more famous is an easy way to get traffic. You capitalize on the audience of that person storming over to your site to see what you said. Plus, you put the offended party in an awkward position if they want to provide any refutation of your claims. If they link back to you when providing their defense they only further enhance your traffic.
This is the lowest form of “journalism” imaginable. If you ever see me partaking in this you have my permission to slap some sense into me.