factoid

The story

From fact + -oid (“similar, but not the same”); coined by American writer Norman Mailer in 1973 in Marilyn: A Biography, defined as "facts which have no existence before appearing in a magazine or newspaper, creations which are not so much lies as a product to manipulate emotion in the Silent Majority".

First known use, by meaning

• from 1973 An inaccurate statement or statistic believed to be true because of broad repetition, especially if cited in the media.