The lead story at DrudgeReport.com as of 11:30 a.m. this morning was "**REUTERS: Backdoor taxes to hit middle class." But Reuters withdrew the article last night. Drudge noted the change and wrote: "**REUTERS pulls tax story..." then added another link to the top left margin: "Largest-ever federal payroll to hit 2.15 million employees..."

So what happened?

According to a Reuters rep, it was withdrawn "due to significant errors of fact."

"The story was wrong on multiple points and should not have gone out," she emailed us. A formal withdrawal will issued will address specific points that were incorrect later today.

UPDATE: A White House offical told Talking Points Memo that administration aides appealed to Reuters to take it down.

The original link lead clickers to an article posted on Monday, Feb. 1 at 4:09 p.m. which reads, in part:

While the administration is focusing its proposal on eliminating tax breaks for individuals who earn $250,000 a year or more, middle-class families will face a slew of these backdoor increases.

...

Millions of middle-class households already may be facing higher taxes in 2010 because Congress has failed to extend tax breaks that expired on January 1, most notably a "patch" that limited the impact of the alternative minimum tax. The AMT, initially designed to prevent the very rich from avoiding income taxes, was never indexed for inflation. Now the tax is affecting millions of middle-income households, but lawmakers have been reluctant to repeal it because it has become a key source of revenue.

At 8:07 p.m. last night, Reuters posted another article: "The story Backdoor taxes to hit middle class has been withdrawn. A replacement story will run later in the week."

Here's the DrudgeReport screenshot: