You'd think that after getting caught pushing a bogus story hours after it was thoroughly debunked, Jim Hoft would leave said story alone, right? Ah, but this is Andrew Breitbart blogger Jim Hoft we're talking about. So instead, he's decided to dig his hole a little deeper.

Yesterday we noted that hours after the story had been debunked by law enforcement officials, Hoft posted breathless headline about how, a “Deranged Gun-Toting Palin Stalker” had been “Arrested 50 Miles From Her Home in Alaska.”

Right, except that wasn't true. The person in question, Shawn Christy, had not been arrested. And that was publicly known before Hoft published his over-excited account. After Media Matters helpfully pointed out the obvious flaw in Hoft's execution, he tagged on an “update” to his blog post noting that the FBI had announced the Palin-stalker-arrested story was bogus.

Fun over, right?

Not quite. Hoft then returned to the soggy stalker story with a modified headline [emphasis added]:

Deranged Gun-Toting Palin Stalker Travels From Pennsylvania to Alaska - Media Insists It's a Non-Story (Updated).

And Hoft's kicker:

The media and far left cranks at Media Matters, of course, see this as a non-story.
It's about time they update their reports with some facts.

Actually, what Media Matters pointed out was that Hoft had been guilty of hyping an arrest story after it had be proven to be false. Period.

As for the Christy-flies-to-Alaska saga being a “non-story”? The local press covered the story in early February when it actually occurred:

A Pennsylvania man accused of stalking Wasilla residents Sarah Palin and Kristan Cole made an uneventful trip to Anchorage Friday and Saturday.

...

Before traveling to Alaska, Christy said he verified with law enforcement and legal authorities in Pennsylvania that his trip to Anchorage would not violate the protective orders, which prohibits contact with the Palin and Cole families and limits how near he can come to locations where they live or frequent.