From Wikipedia

[csziggy]

13. Wikipedia is a great route to original information sources

Yes, I am lazy and will cite Wikipedia, but I do check the sources linked in the Wikipedia article. If those check out, but the information is not concisely written, I often use the Wikipedia article to provide the same information in a tighter format.

For factual information I find Wikipedia to be pretty reliable, such as the historical information cited above. For political information, such as bios of political figures or information on current issues, their articles can be very slanted or even completely inaccurate. As with any source, you have to weigh the original sources and the way the information is provided.

I do not find Wikipedia to any less reliable than many news sources - and Wikipedia does provide more accessibility to the sources to support their information than any news source I have ever seen.