Show threadDoc Edward Morbius ⭕​Dec 4

@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).

Prime Number | On the Media | WNYC

Numbers justify fear. 50,000 abducted children, for example, or 50,000 predators prowling for children online. That last figure appeared in a recent introduction for NBC’s “Dateline.” And last week, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales cited Dateline’s number. But where did it come from? So far as statistics go, it turns out that 50,000 is something of a Goldilocks number in the media – not too big and not too small, but for scaring the public - just right.

WNYC