OTTAWA – A radio host’s comments about “phasing out” male redheads did not breach any broadcast codes, according to the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council (CBSC).
On October 2, 2011, a radio host on CFEX-FM (X92.9 FM, Calgary) host talked about a news report that a sperm bank was not accepting any more redheaded donors. He stated that, although he found redheaded women attractive, male redheads “freak me out” and “if we could phase out all the male, male gingers, that would be great.” He also named a few male celebrity redheads that one could “get rid of”.
The CBSC received a complaint from a listener who felt that the comments were unacceptable because they targeted a specific group. The radio station suggested that the comments were not intended as an attack on anyone.
The CBSC’s Prairie Regional Panel examined the complaint under the CAB Code of Ethics. It noted that hair colour is not a category of identifiable groups under the Human Rights clause of the Code, but that it could nevertheless examine the complaint under the clause that requires the fair and proper presentation of opinion.
While the Panel acknowledged that it was in poor taste to disparage any group on the airwaves, it concluded that there was no breach of the Code because the comments “were not said in a particularly harsh, nasty or mean-spirited way.”
