In what was clearly a radio stunt, Erich “Mancow” Muller allowed himself to be waterboarded last Friday morning during his show on WLS-AM. With his partner Pat Cassidy providing play-by-play commentary, Mancow appeared to undergo the same procedure that CIA interrogators used against a handful of detainees, a technique recently banned by the Obama administration and critiszied by Democrats in Congress.

Aside from getting attention, Mancow intended on making a point about the seriousness of the technique. After lasting less than six seconds, he quickly succumbed to the sensation of drowning and ended the procedure. Breathless and soaking wet, Mancow proclaimed that waterboarding was definitely torture.

Now, new details are emerging that, perhaps, the whole stunt wasn’t legitimate after all.

The gossip wesbite Gawker.com reported late Thursday night that a series of e-mails have been made public that show that a publicist associated with Mancow tried to find a replacement waterboarder after the original participant backed out at the last minute. Linda Shafran has been a long-time publicist in Chicago and most recently worked for Jerry Springer, whose show recently relocated to Connecticut from Chicago.

Shafran sent an e-mail to a friend with connections in the military community. She asked him for the names of anyone who might be willing to participate in the stunt. When asked for clarification of what exactly Mancow was looking for, she replied in an e-mail, “It is going to have to look ‘real’ but of course would be simulated with Mancow acting like he is drowning. It will be a hoax but have to look real.”

Gawker went on to talk to the Marine who performed the waterboarding. He said:

“I know nothing about waterboarding. I had never done it before, I have no formal training in it, and I’ve never had it done to me. The only thing I knew was what I saw on the internet. I went to waterboarding.org and looked it up. I just did what I was told—poured the water on his face and that was it. I’m probably the last person they should have had do it. I didn’t know what I was doing.”

What is Mancow saying? Well, he’s not exactly a fount of logic to begin with, so his press release comes across a little less than clear:

“We kept telling management, the insurance companies, and the local Chicago cops we weren’t really going to do it – until we did. Otherwise, they weren’t gonna let us do it! We got a U.S. Marine that told us he had studied how to do it and he volunteered to waterboard me in return for a mention of his charity.

I was on a decline and I was waterboarded. Was I in chains? No. Does that make it less real? I am failing to get the point attempted by my detractors. We never claimed it was an exact recreation.”

It’s clear that Mancow is doing what Mancow does. He’s a shock jock, but now he’s masquerading as some kind of conservative gabber who has the gravitas to wade into heady discussions about national security. Unfortunately, in order to earn the right to be heard in that arena, one has to have some credibility. Sadly, that’s one thing that Mancow has been unable to counterfeit.

What must Pat Cassidy think about all of this?

Here’s the video of Mancow being waterboarded:

Here’s his appearance on Keith Olbermann’s show on MSNBC:

And here’s Olbermann’s defense of the whole mess: