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**Written by Doug Powers

Here’s the obligatory “layers of fact checkers and editors” story of the day.

The Associated Press — traditionally proven to be at least as reliable as my Internet service this weekend — is now trying to kill a story about Sen. Rand Paul’s appearance on Fox News Sunday. The crux of the “news” the AP was in too much of a rush to get out there was this:

Paul says people want a party that’s “less aggressive on foreign policy” and drug laws. Paul says he sees voters wanting, quote, “somebody who wants to round people up, put in camps and send them back to Mexico.”

Is that what Paul said? No. Via Politico, here’s the AP’s retraction, and the reason (bold is mine):

Date: 02/17/2013 01:44 PM

US-Paul-Immigration/113
BULLETIN KILL. Do NOT use BC-US–Paul-Immigration. A kill is mandatory.
STORY REMOVED: BC-US–Paul-Immigration

WASHINGTON (AP) – The Associated Press has withdrawn its story about Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., saying he sees some in the his party favoring a 2016 presidential candidate with an immigration policy that would “round up people … and send them back to Mexico.” That quote was in the transcript of “Fox News Sunday” that was distributed after Paul’s interview on the show. A subsequent Associated Press review of an audio recording of the show determined that the transcript had dropped the word “don’t” from that quote, and Paul actually said, “They don’t want somebody who wants to round people up, put them in camps and send them back to Mexico.”

I’m guessing it’ll take a little while for certain outlets to pull the story, especially since it’s Sunday and all.

By the time the AP says they realized the error, the story was already out there. As of this moment, it still is in some places:

**Written by Doug Powers

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