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Washington Post erroneously reports Sarah Palin joining Al Jazeera

The Washington Post has erroneously reported that Sarah Palin, the former vice presidential candidate and former Fox News contributor, is joining the Qatari-owned news network Al Jazeera.

"Late last week Al Jazeera America announced the former vice-presidential candidate would be joining their news network," the Post's Suzi Parker writes today in a post on the She The People blog, titled "Sarah Palin’s plan to reach ‘millions of devoutly religious people’ through al-Jazeera."

(WATCH: Sarah Palin’s greatest moments at Fox News)

Parker calls this "a cautionary tale about what can happen when politics and celebrity meet."

But Parker's report is a cautionary tale about what can happen when writers cite satirical websites, such as The Daily Currant.

On Feb. 4, the Daily Currant published a satirical piece stating that Palin was "bouncing back by joining the fledgling Al Jazeera America news network as a host and commentator." Parker cites this piece and uses quotes that the Currant attributes to Palin, including:

“As you all know, I’m not a big fan of newspapers, journalists, news anchors and the liberal media in general,” Palin told the Web site The Daily Currant. “But I met with the folks at Al-Jazeera and they told me they reach millions of devoutly religious people who don’t watch CBS or CNN. That tells me they don’t have a liberal bias.”

Al Jazeera spokesman Stan Collender confirmed to POLITICO that Sarah Palin is not joining the global news network, which -- as Parker notes -- was recently called “an anti-American terror mouthpiece" on Fox News, where Palin was a contributor. (I've written at length about American opposition to Al Jazeera.)

(Also on POLITICO: Al Jazeera America: Will they watch?)

Washington Post spokesperson Kris Coratti said the paper would look into the matter.

Al Jazeera bought Current TV, the progressive news channel co-founded by Al Gore, earlier this year. It plans to launch Al Jazeera America, a brand distinct from Al Jazeera and Al Jazeera English, later this year.

UPDATE (10:30 a.m.): The following correction now appears in bold at the top of the post:

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this post incorrectly reported that Sarah Palin planned to contribute to the Al Jazeera America news network.

UPDATE (11:40 a.m.): The correction has been expanded to read as follows:

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this post incorrectly reported that Sarah Palin had signed on as a contributor to the Al Jazeera America news network. The blogger cited a report on the Daily Currant Web site as the basis for that information without realizing that the piece was satirical.