@timbray #OnTheMedia's classic 2006 episode, "Prime Number", addresses this point beautifully, mostly related to news and media, though #Wikipedia and #Wikipedians should take note.

OTM cites #CarlBialik, then writing for the WSJ (he's since worked at FiveThirtyEight and is now at Yelp ... per Wikipedia):

An interesting phenomenon of these numbers is that they'll often be cited to an agency or some government body, and then a study will pick it up, and then the press will repeat it from that study. And then once it appears in the press, public officials will repeat it again, and now it's become an official number.

https://www.wnyc.org/story/128722-prime-number/ (audio and transcript).