Why does the idea persist in this day and age that because the public-facing component of an organization's website is down or being DDoS'd that it has anything

Why does the idea persist in this day and age that because the public-facing component of an organization's website is down or being DDoS'd that it has anything to do with the internet or non-internet facing operations otherwise? The NSA, White House, and State Department currently use Akamai for their public websites, for example.