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.
Not a hoax.
Fact is, stations HAVE been fined for repeating things in the same content that had been allowed for years.
If it takes station managers making this stand to get some people to wake up I am all for it. I do not want to sit idly by and watch as others dictate what I can and can't see, say and hear.