Dire Straits’ ‘Money for Nothing’ should be censored, broadcast panel rules
Posted Jan 13, 2011 01:00:00 PM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
The 1980s song “Money for Nothing” by the British rock band Dire Straits has been deemed unacceptable for play on Canadian radio.
In a ruling released Wednesday, the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council says the song contravenes the human rights clauses of the Canadian Association of Broadcasters’ Code of Ethics and Equitable Portrayal Code.
A listener to radio station CHOZ-FM in St. John’s, N.L., complained last year that the song includes the word “faggot” in its lyrics and is discriminatory to gays.
The broadcaster argued that the song had been played countless times since its release decades ago and has won music industry awards.
A CBSC panel concluded that the word “faggot,” even if once acceptable, has evolved to become unacceptable in most circumstances.
Lite92.9 program director Terry Williams likens the development to the recent rewriting of Mark Twain’s classic Huck Finn books.
“The original writings are almost sacred,” he says. “You don’t want to go and paint a mustache on the Mona Lisa. But on the other side of the coin, we’re trying to raise our families and our future generations to be sensitive to the issues of minorities, and the difference between others and what is hurtful to some and not hurtful to others.”
The panel noted that “Money for Nothing” would be acceptable for broadcast if suitably edited.
Knopfler described the writing of the song in a 1985 interview with critic Bill Flanagan:
“The lead character in “Money for Nothing” is a guy who works in the hardware department in a television/custom kitchen/refrigerator/microwave appliance store,” said Knopfler. “He’s singing the song. I wrote the song when I was actually in the store. I borrowed a bit of paper and started to write the song down in the store. I wanted to use a lot of the language that the real guy actually used when I heard him, because it was more real….”
Links:
– The complete decision from the CBSC
