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There is substance behind the stunt.

The fact is, it shows the system is screwed up because, technically, there could have been a fine, and that is not how our legal system is supposed to work.

I, for one, don't want the government being allowed to control the context of language, because that is far too close to censoring ideas.

The fact is, it shows the system is screwed up

Look. How is the system "screwed up"?

Tonight, hundreds of TV stations are going to show SPR. None of them will be fined. What's "screwed up"?

Some station in Iowa disingenuously crying wolf proves that there really is a wolf?

technically, there could have been a fine,

There is not going to be a fine. Nobody seriously believes there is going to be a fine. There is no good reason to believe that there will be a fine. And I reckon even Mr. Cole does not, deep down, actually believe there will be a fine.

He is crying wolf.

Look, let me make another analogy. Think of cases like Rigoberta Menchu, Tawana Brawley, or some other known fraud or hoax. It happens time and time again that the left grasps onto some story which, they argue, shows how bad things are.

Then if the hoax is exposed for what it is, the story exposed as an out-and-out lie, the left shrugs and says, "Well, ok, maybe it's not literally true, but at least it shows some Larger Truth about the way things are..." I know you've heard this a thousand times over.

Well, you are essentially making the same argument: That even those it's not literally true that TV stations have an actual risk of getting fined for showing SPR, it's ok for this guy to pretend and lie about feeling "scared" so as to expose the "Larger Truth" that the FCC is being too moralistic/arbitrary/whatever.

Sorry, I just don't buy into Hoaxes For Larger Truths.