This kind of speaks to a premise discussed later on in the article regarding the manner in which the gist of interesting trivia tends to drift as time passes, the longer trivia is in play and the greater currency it gains among laymen and non-experts.

Starting with the words:

  In a decades-long game of telephone [...]

The article points to an effect in the field of neuroscience that is not unlike The Murray Gell-Mann Amnesia Effect.

https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/65213-briefly-stated-the-ge...