UPDATED Nov. 6 at 7:50 p.m. ET with details from an editor's note POLITICO affixed to its original story

BALTIMORE — Ben Carson has built his brand and his presidential campaign on a rags-to-riches success story that took him from Detroit to Johns Hopkins here in Baltimore.

But as he rises in the polls — even eclipsing Donald Trump in some early state and national stories — his biography is drawing more scrutiny.

The latest attempt to investigate Carson's backstory created a firestorm surrounding his campaign, one that drew conservatives to rally behind Carson decrying a witch-hunt at the hands of the mainstream media.

On Friday, POLITICO reported that Carson had "fabricated" his acceptance and admission into the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. Only later in the day, POLITICO changed its story — deleting all mentions of alleged "fabrication" and editing the story's headline and lede.

The details quickly became murky, particularly around exactly what Carson had claimed, what he had been told by Gen. William Westmoreland and exactly what had transpired some decades ago.

Some conservative media outlets already considered the story to have been debunked. Breitbart.com featured the headline "Politico goes for Kill: 'Carson admits fabricating West Point scholarship' ... shock claim quickly debunked." The Drudge Report ran with the lead headline of "Carson fights back." The Daily Caller quickly countered with a piece entitled "Five Serious Questions About Politico's Hit On Ben Carson's West Point Story."

After the POLITICO report published, Carson told The New York Times that he didn't remember the specifics of the incident:

"Because I had done so extraordinarily well you know I was told that someone like me — they could get a scholarship to West Point. But I made it clear I was going to pursue a career in medicine. It was, you know, an informal 'with a record like yours we could easily get you a scholarship to West Point.'"

A POLITICO spokesperson told Mashable that the news outlet stands by its story.

"We stand by our story, which is a powerful debunking of a key aspect of Ben Carson's personal narrative. The story online includes additional details now, as well, that bolster this account," the spokesperson said.

The site later added an editor's note to the top of the story expressing as much. The note also describes why POLITICO removed the term "fabricated" from its headline.

The original story and headline said that Carson’s campaign had admitted he "fabricated" a "full scholarship" from West Point, but now Carson denies that his campaign’s statement constituted such an admission, and the story and headline were changed to reflect that. POLITICO’s reporting established that Carson said he received a "full scholarship" from West Point, in writing and in public appearances over the years — but in fact he did not and there is actually no such thing as a "full scholarship" to the taxpayer-funded academy. And today in response to POLITICO he acknowledged for the first time that was not the case.

Mashable has reached out to Carson multiple times but has yet to receive a response.

The story of Carson's West Point offer has been long-told, and appears in his autobiography, Gifted Hands, which later became a movie starring Cuba Gooding Jr.

"Later I was offered a full scholarship to West Point," he wrote in a passage describing a meting with Westmoreland. "As overjoyed as I felt to be offered such a scholarship, I wasn't really tempted."

West Point confirmed that Carson had not completed an application for admission.

POLITICO states in its editor's note that Carson never specifically wrote that he applied to West Point and the news organization should have clarified that point.

Carson faces scrutiny

The dust-up over Carson's college years comes as the retired neurosurgeon is facing mounting questions about his personal narrative — particularly his early years.

While many conservatives rallied to Carson's side after the allegations, at least one of his rivals seized on it as an opportunity.

"@Robostop10: @realDonaldTrump This is not good. https://t.co/lvv0MRfgtH" WOW, one of many lies by Ben Carson! Big story. — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 6, 2015

A CNN investigation has focused on instances of violence that Carson described in Gifted Hands and elsewhere. In one passage of the book, Carson describes a 1960s knife attack on a boy who was identified only as "Bob." The fight, he wrote, was over which radio station to listen to.

Carson also described tales of punching someone, throwing rocks and hitting his mother with a hammer, a violent temper that seems drastically different than the soft-spoken man that appears on Republican debate stages.

In the days since he has been pressed for more details, Carson has given shifting explanations.

In a Fox News interview Thursday night, Fox said "Bob" — the person Carson says he tried to stab as a child — was not "anxious to be revealed."

"It was a close relative of mine, and I didn’t want to put their lives under the spotlight," he said.

On Friday morning, Carson called CNN's reporting a "bunch of lies," despite the fact that the network's reporters had been unable to corroborate the stories with Carson's childhood acquaintances.

"This is a bunch of lies attempting to say I'm lying about my history," he said. "I think it's pathetic, and basically what the media does is they try to get you distracted."

Carson said the vetting he is receiving from the media now is unfair, and significantly less than the vetting then-candidate Barack Obama received.

"The vetting that you all did with President Obama doesn't even come close, doesn't even come close to what you guys are trying to do in my case, and you're just going to keep going back," Carson said. "Give me a break."

Carson, the son of a woman who only had a third-grade education graduated from Yale and the University of Michigan Medical School. He was the youngest person and first black doctor to hold the title of chief of pediatric neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore.

While he has never held political office, he made waves in 2013 with a speech at the National Prayer Breakfast in which he denounced the Affordable Care Act and the country's "moral decay."

But Carson's life prior to his presidential campaign was not without its own controversy.

In 2013, Carson withdrew as a commencement speaker at Johns Hopkins after linking same-sex marriage to pedophilia.

Editor's Note: Juana Summers worked at POLITICO as a reporter from 2010 to 2014.