[rpedela]

"Here is why the consensus is _______" is not argument by authority, correct.

"The ________ theory/hypothesis is fringe, the consensus is ________" is argument by authority.

See the difference? Phrasing matters in this case. All too often it is phrased the second way. I don't expect someone to literally enumerate all the evidence for or against something, but there is a middle ground between that and just saying "well consensus is ______".

[scott_s]

> "The ________ theory/hypothesis is fringe, the consensus is ________" is argument by authority.

That is not an argument, so it can't be "argument by authority." It is a framing.

[wnoise]

It's not an explicit argument. Most arguments people make have lots of implicit steps and subarguments though. This is one of those cases.

[rat9988]

It is clearly a case of argument by authority.