OTTAWA – Canadian radio stations may once again play the unedited version of the Dire Straits song “Money for Nothing” after the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council (CBSC) relaxed its opposition to the “other f-word” contained in the song.
The song, from the band’s 1985 album Brothers In Arms, includes three instances of the word “faggot”. In January, after a listener complained to the CBSC that the word is discriminatory to gays, the CBSC’s Atlantic Regional Panel determined that the song breached broadcast codes, as did any radio station that played it. The decision generated a wave of public criticism, which prompted the CRTC to ask the CBSC to solicit public opinion and then reconsider its decision.
The CBSC convened a specially-constituted Panel made up of long-serving Adjudicators from each of the five regions – British Columbia, the Prairies, Ontario, Quebec and the Atlantic provinces. After evaluating the song in terms of its age, origin, and context and prominence of the challenged word, the ad hoc National Panel said Wednesday that the song was the exception to the rule.
“In the end, the ad hoc National Panel considers that the Atlantic Regional Panel was correct in its view of the inappropriateness of the word “faggot” for broadcast on Canadian airwaves”, reads its decision. “Whether or not the challenged word was at one time less unacceptable, perhaps as recently as 25 years ago, it no longer is.
“The National Panel wishes to make perfectly clear to those persons who have commended the CBSC for its “brave” position regarding the disapproval of the hateful and painful term that it is not abandoning that position or the CBSC’s sensitivity to their concern. It is only saying that there may be circumstances in which even words designating unacceptably negative portrayal may be acceptable because of their contextual usage. The ad hoc National Panel finds this one such occasion.
“[Alternative versions of the song] are available for broadcast and, to the extent that broadcasters wish to respect that sensitivity of members of their audience, they have the option to make that airplay choice without any editing of the song on their part. While, for the reasons given in this decision, the ad hoc National Panel concludes that the original version does not breach the private broadcasters’ codified standards, it would encourage broadcasters to make the airplay choice appropriate to their market.”
