An Edmonton rock station says it will flout a decision by the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council by playing a Dire Straits song from the '80s that uses the term “faggot” non-stop for an hour Friday night.
On Wednesday, the council ruled that the term, which appears three times in the lyrics to "Money For Nothing," was offensive.
A complainant in Newfoundland heard the song on St. John’s station CHOZ-FM and contacted the council to say that the song’s lyrics were “extremely offensive” to gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people.
“Really, we feel it’s a poor decision on the part of the CBSC who are really taking the word ‘faggot,’ used in the song several times, out of context,” K-97 radio personality Todd James said Thursday night. He will be playing the song continuously between 8 p.m. and 9 p.m. Friday.
“It’s not an attack against homosexuals. It wasn’t 26 years ago, it isn’t now.”
James said that because the station has been very public with its plans to contravene the ban, it is prepared to deal with any complaints or reprimands.
He said the station isn’t trying to change the decision, but wants to exercise its right to free speech by taking a stand.
“I don’t think we’re going to reverse anyone’s decision,” he said. “The motivation is just to say we’re unhappy with this decision.”
He added the station had been taking non-stop calls Thursday evening from listeners about the station’s plans.
“So far we’ve had nothing but support,” he said.
The council is an independent body created by Canadian radio and television broadcasters to review the standards of their content.
The council’s Atlantic regional panel weighed the song’s “legitimate artistic usage” against the Canadian Association of Broadcaster’s Code of Ethics, which in part states: “broadcasters shall ensure that their programming contains no abusive or unduly discriminatory material or comment which is based on matters of race, national or ethnic origin, colour, religion, age, sex, sexual orientation, marital status or physical or mental disability.”
The council concluded “faggot,” when used to describe a homosexual man, is a word “that, even if entirely or marginally acceptable in earlier days, is no longer so.””The societal values at issue a quarter century later have shifted and the broadcast of the song in 2010 must reflect those values, rather than those of 1985.”
Since edited versions exist, such as one that replaces the offending term with “mother,” the council deemed CHOZ-FM to have breached the ethics code.
The radio station, which bills itself as “The Rock of the Rock,” must now announce “during peak listening hours” the details of the decision.
Co-written by Mark Knopfler and Sting, "Money For Nothing" takes the perspective of a working-class salesman watching music videos. The tune took the world by storm during the first half of the 1980s.
The song, which was the first single off of Dire Straits’ 1985 album Brothers in Arms, earned the British duo a Grammy for best rock performance and was the first music video aired on MTV Europe.
Source www.canada.com