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Fox News' poll coverage omits Rand Paul

Since Rand Paul launched his bid for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination, he has consistently finished between third and sixth place in polls that include as many as 19 GOP contenders.

Yet when Fox News reports on those polls, the Kentucky senator is at times nowhere to be found. For instance: A Quinnipiac poll released Thursday had Paul in sixth. But when Fox News ran an image of ten candidates under the banner, "If The Republican Primary Were Held Today," based on that poll, Paul's name and visage were missing.

Rare's Nick Morpus notes that Fox News similarly omitted Paul from an in-house poll it ran two weeks ago, measuring how Republican hopefuls would fare against Hillary Clinton. Paul's name just wasn't there. Never mind that two weeks prior to that, Fox News did include Paul's name in a survey that showed him polling highest against Hillary.

UPDATE (7:15 p.m.): A Fox News spokesperson told the On Media blog that the omission was nothing more than a “program error." Sen. Paul appeared on Fox News last week, on May 26th.