A lot of Media Matters readers wonder why we spend so much energy tracking and refuting the online scribblings of Gateway Pundit Jim Hoft, given that much of what Hoft writes is so stupid as to be self-refuting.

This is why.

Earlier this morning, Hoft wrote a post titled “Idiot Obama State Department Spokesman Wishes Ahmadinejad Happy Birthday.” Hoft linked to this tweet from Assistant Secretary of State P.J. Crowley directed at Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, which is not at all a wish of birthday good tidings, as anyone with an ounce of sense and a modicum of reading comprehension can tell:

Now, granted, Jim Hoft writing something stupid isn't exactly a stop-the-presses kind of moment. But a few hours later we get this:

And now, by virtue of Palin's celebrity power, the entire conservative media will be buzzing about the State Department's happy birthday wish to Ahmadinejad, even though it never happened. And it's all because Jim Hoft, the Dumbest Man on the Internet, is an influential voice on the right.