This is an update to this post by Kate about the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council’s decision to ban the Dire Straits song Money For Nothing from Canadian airwaves after one person in Newfoundland complained about one particular word.
In the song, written by Mark Knopfler – surely one of the gentlest and most mild-mannered human beings extant – a frustrated, hardworking, furniture-moving yob sees a poodle-headed rock star on MTV, and says (in effect) to his buddy, in a tone that’s simultaneously awestruck and bitter, “Look at that guy! He’s a millionaire. Why the hell are we moving appliances for a living?”
This envious character who uses the word “faggot” also says “That’s the way you do it!” and “Lemme tell ya’, them guys ain’t dumb!”
Anyway, here’s the good news, brought to our attention last night by SDA reader Rob: an Edmonton radio station is refusing to abide by the limitlessly tone-deaf, dumb, march-step “progressive” – what an ironic word – ridiculousness:
While some of K-97’s content may be controversial, we respect the right to free speech for all Canadians and songwriters. That’s why K-97 has decided to go against the grain…yet again, and hold a “MONEY FOR NOTHING HOUR”. From 8pm – 9pm on Friday, January 14th, 2011 K-97’s Todd James will be playing the Dire Straits “Money For Nothing” unedited and non stop for the entire hour to express our deep concern about this decision and the precedent it sets.
That’s exactly how it’s supposed to work. You can support the station and it’s program director by calling 780-437-9323, or – perhaps preferably, given the number of calls they’re probably receiving in real time – by emailing the station’s program director, James “Gruff” Gushkowski, at jgushnowski@newcap.ca
And feel free to tool around the Canadian Broadcast Standard Council website for some thoroughly up-to-date bureaucratise.
The character in the song also spoke hurtfully about Yo-yos. We have feelings too you know.
Private sector bureaucratise and censorship are ugly indeed.
I don’t care. It’s a great song. It’s one of maybe 10 different songs I listen to on my MP3 player.
Lefties just have to squeeze fun out of everything, someday people are going to notice and respond accordingly.
Me, I’m using the phrase at every opportunity.
Don’t like it? Tough titty.
done
The incredible stupidity of too much government do goodness.
Maybe they should just agree to wipe the butt of the moron who complained . . . must be difficult with yer head stuck up yer ass.
Go to the CBSC website and repeatedly hit ‘refresh’ on your browser. Pay close attention to the upper left hand side of your screen and you’ll be treated to a slide show representing the ‘broad strata of typical Canadians'(tm)
For some reason I feel like breaking into a chorus of ‘We are the World’.
Typical lefty pap.
Solution to the Dire Straits ban in Canada:
See the little commie with the earring and the makeup
Yeah buddy that’s his own hair
That little commie got his own jet airplane
That little commie he’s a millionaire
Posted by: grognard at Ace of SHQ
Too funny.
That said you don’t mess with the Classics and we wouldn’t need the very concept of protecting free speech if everybody liked what everyone else said all the time.
The speech that someone is offended by is the speech that needs protecting the most.
Jetliner! Jetliner!
If an adult is so offended by a song, why does he just not listen to it?
Revolutionary, I know.
Don’t like a song, don’t listen to it, don’t like a picture, don’t look at it, a concept that’s not in the ideology of the Leftards.
At what point will they start sanitizing the Christian Bible or other holy books?
respnding to foobert 5:58 on the previous Dire Straits thread.
“That reminds me, I remember when Rock and Around the Clock was banned in the 1950s.”
sorry for the late reply
I guess you can say that these things are cyclical in nature eh? haha
I went to iTunes this morning and purchased the song along with several other Dire Straits and Mark Knoppfler songs. My own little protest against bureaucratic busy-bodies.
Reminds me when Britain censored/banned “My ding-A-Ling” by Chuck Berry in the 70’s. At least you know where their minds are.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UaEC-lWSlmI&NR=1
I read a comment about the latest PC decision that is undeniably true – progressives have now completely morphed into everything they claim they hate about social conservatives.
They have become the little old ladies of the 50’s lecturing society about the degeneration of family values and improper manners; the prudes painting fig leaves over Renaissance masterpieces; the promoters of a 21st century version of Index Librorum Prohibitorum . Of course, progressives use the terms social justice and political correctness to justify their prissy behavior but the results are exactly the same, a totalitarian urge to censor that which offends them and cleanse the past of anything that does not conform to their holier-than-thou sensibilities.
“The incredible stupidity of too much government do goodness.”
“My own little protest against bureaucratic busy-bodies.”
You guys don’t think that the Canadian Broadcast Standard’s Council is a government body, do you? It’s a private organization set up by private radio and TV broadcasters to police themselves according to their own codes.
I live in the GTA, so an email of support from me means nothing to an Edmonton station that relies on local advertiser dollars.
Instead, I asked them where I can send this $50 I happen to have handy.
Much like the Comics Code Authority was a completely voluntary standards organization, right, Davenport?
When the government puts a gun to an industry’s head and says “regulate yourselves, or we’ll do it for you”, all you’re doing is painting a fig leaf over the gun.
Remember how angry the left was when Harper wanted to cut public funding to the arts? Where are these people now that art is actually being censored???
Remember how angry the left was when Harper wanted to cut public funding to the arts? Where are these people now that art is actually being censored???
Seems to me that the Taliban bans music as well.
It is an NGO but go and read the backgrounds of the adjudicators and executive, it is progressive from top to bottom. These people could just as easily be judges for the CHRC or any other of the various social justice careers inside and outside of government.
Davenport says “Private sector bureaucratise and censorship are ugly indeed.”
But Davenport misses the real issue (as usual) and tries to blow smoke.
The CBSC is simply bowing down to the inevitable onslaught that will soon be coming when the CBSC ruling is ignored by radio stations and the original complainant whines and snivels to the Human “Rights” Commission. Then the matter moves from the private sector into the government kangaroo sector and the cottage industry parasites sink their teeth into the taxpayers.
And, of course, as radio stations operate at the pleasure of the CRTC, their licenses are at risk. There has only been one radio station that has dared go against a ruling by the CBSC. That station lost its license.
The censorship – while it appears on its face to be private sector – is not. It is government from top to bottom.
Yes Davenport we know it isn’t a government agency. It’s a feel-good club where members can spout leftist platitudes to somehow make themselves seem important. It’s fashionable to be a member of such a voluntary club. Just like how some companies issue pissy-pants ‘Mission Staements’ and ‘Green Policies’ to somehow convey that they are more caring/socially conscious than thier competition. This whole ‘faggot’ episode, I assume, is just an act of appeasement to some thumb sucking sissy making a complaint that his ‘feelings were hurt'(tm) and the Council’s subsequent limp-dicked effort to make themselves feel relivant to thier members by claiming to be ‘listening to the public’.
Oh how I wish Frank Zappa were still alive to tear the CBSC a new one.
I read somewherethat the ability to offend is very cornerstone of free speech. Ironically, I found this concept offensive.
Go to the website and read the bio’s of the “Panel Adjudicators” like Bennett said.
It doesn’t get any more lefty than these people.
How much do they get paid to sit as Adjudicators? I can’t find it on the site very easily.
Where do I apply?
Q104, in Halifax, which I gave up on about four years ago in favour of XM, is also playing the song for an hour this evening.
http://thechronicleherald.ca/Front/9019483.html
“When the government puts a gun to an industry’s head and says “regulate yourselves, or we’ll do it for you”, all you’re doing is painting a fig leaf over the gun.”
“The censorship – while it appears on its face to be private sector – is not. It is government from top to bottom.”
Yep, it’s always the government’s fault. Even when an industry-led group that’s been self-regulating its members for 20+ years tells its members to do something that you (and, as it happens, I) disagree with, it’s still ultimately the government’s fault.
Because if the CBSC doesn’t do that, then the government will step in and do it for them. At least, that’s what’s automatically presumed will happen. Because, you see, it’s always the government’s fault.
Whiners indeed.
The little faggot is now a billionaire.
I’ve sent my supporting e-mail to the radio station – and just heard that Rock 101 in Vancouver is also going to be playing the song at length.
And I sent the following to all three ‘policy people’ at the CBSC.
Here’s their e-addresses:
jmacnab@cbsc.ca
ron.cohen@cbsc.ca
tgaylard@cbsc.ca
Teisha Gaylard – Director of Policy
Dear Ms. Gaylard;
Apparently a single complaint was sufficient for your organization to immediately slip into full censorship mode – over a song that has been played literally millions of times over the last quarter of a century. The sanitizing of language, especially in such arbitrary and ludicrous fashion is insidious and dangerous.
Do you really prefer that all of us be subject to the loss of individual freedoms – for that’s what censorship is – when that lone complainant has the option of switching a station or turning off her radio? I’m sick of the infinitesimally small number of perpetually offended, politically correct and small minded people who continue to tighten the noose of regulation around the rest of us and I’m concerned that organizations such as yours afford them such power.
At the risk of giving offence, why don’t you grow a pair?
I didn’t realize the picture in the top left was changeable, until I saw the comment above. I first got the late forties-aged long-haired brunette who looks like she could be Jennifer Lynch, deciding whether to cruxify the miscreant or boil him in oil.
Let me tell you what offends me.
The repetitive commercials that constantly repeat every 30 minutes or so.
Did I mention that they repeat and repeat?
The next time I hear – “Did the bank say no?” on the radio I will do damage to that same radio.
It is the PC censorship that bothers people, Davenport. PC whiners and progressives (bureaucrat or non-bureaucrat, it doesn’t matter) have become prissy, prudish censors that impose their narrow-minded morality on the rest of us.
It’s a good thing the folks at CBSC are too young to remember all the ‘Stones un-PC hits back in the ’70’s,like “Star! Star!” and “Some Girls”.
PC madness.
I wonder how many complaints it would take to get Kumbaya banned by the CSSB?
Ban Kumbaya next.
I wonder how many complaints it would take?
LOL! Brilliant stock play by Knopfler! His street cred just shot up exponentially!
What else could you expect – he’s a Sultan of Swing. Most excellent, awesome stuff.
playing devil’s advocate here
I’ve noticed that much of the argument being made against banning this particular songs is around the fact that the f’word is being used in a satirical fashion, and therefore should not be censored. So my question is: Would the free speechers here have the same view had the songs use of the word been intended to be derogatory?
The reason I ask, is because I do get the distinct impression that the free speechers here(some) are particularly adamant about protecting music they like, but on the other hand often support and advocate for the censorship of music the don’t like, or deem ‘not music’. Those of you who know me know where I’m going with this.
Does intent, or taste factor into this discussion regarding the censorship of music on the airwaves?
Glad to see that there are some anti-PC forces out there. Supportive email sent. I’m not sure which part of turn off the radio if you don’t like what’s on the perpetually outraged classes don’t understand.
Not for libertarians, Indy. They would agree with loki, “which part of turn off the radio if you don’t like what’s on the perpetually outraged classes don’t understand”.
Social/religious conservatives, OTOH, would probably like to impose their own Thou Shall Not Say list. Although, considering the beating they’ve been taking from progressives for the last few decades, SoCons are now more receptive to the idea that freedom of expression is essential.
Dang that CBSB! Dang that CBSB all to heck! They forced me to drag out my old Dire Straits DVD and listen to the word “fagot” all over again. I was on the road to recovery from the last time I heard fagot and now they have gone and done this to me. I am a victim! Ban the dang CBSB!
Look what they’ve done to my song Ma.
Look what they’ve done to my song.
Well it’s the only thing I could do half right And its turning out all wrong.
Look what they’ve done to my song.
Oh sorry got carried away.
Hey, what about “ooh yeah, baby, stick it in the camera!”
Indiana Homez, I don’t believe in any censorship of music although I have to admit that I have a very hard time making out words in most songs; until I found out otherwise, I thought the chorus of the Beatles Yellow Submarine was “we all live in the elephant brigade”. Seems my brain doesn’t process words when they are sung.
Music elicits an emotional response and, in me, the strongest negative emotional responses were elicited first by disco, which I detested, and rap which I will not listen to. If a store is playing rap music I simply don’t enter. OTOH, if a store is playing Hendrix then I will be more likely to enter.
My preference is for instrumental music especially of the great guitarists like Hendrix, Clapton, JJ Cale, Jimmy Page and Mark Knopfler. I have no idea what the words are to Sultans of Swing but I can easily play back the guitar and bass in my head with sort of a muffled vocal track there — I listen to the instruments not the words. Maybe because I play piano and guitar and don’t sing words of a song aren’t particularly important to me.
Some bands one will be very unlikely to hear played on Canadian radio are Konkwista88 and Valkyria. I’ve downloaded mp3’s of their music and quite like them although I have no idea what they’re singing about although Konkwista88’s song “White warrior” gives you an idea of why you’ll never hear them on Canadian radio. I guess they would belong to a genre one could call Aryan Metal. What now seems to be referred to as Metal music we used to call hard rock in the early 1970’s and it’s a style of music I happen to like, especially when I have repetitive physical work to do. My wife hates it and I can only play metal music when I’m alone in the house. OTOH, when I have intellectual work to do it will be done to a background of Beethoven, Bach or Mozart.
If you review the history of feminism you’ll see similar situations, when they ran out actual evidence of gender equality they made stuff up or hunted for signs of “Female oppression” todate the feminists are stuck on the floor looking at the mythical glass ceiling wailing at the inequality of their position. The Gay right’s activists have hit the wall on incidents of “Homophobia” thus they seek and hunt for any sign of it in every venue of society. However this time they crossed the line and now they are getting a very public scolding for their over reaction to a bloody song. I’m sick of the activists and their never ending need to feel special and victimized by “Words”.
loki, Mondegreen.
S/He who doesn’t understand the language or is flippant with his words eventually, umm, OK, wait…
Well, anyway, bad stuff will happen, just trust me. Your blood will boil, etc.
The militant gay agenda only wants people to be forced to see gay and perverted arts. The people who run with the militant gay agenda are ultra left and hate anything that successfully makes money.
The unblemished truth is that most art that is good and comes from straight people, will make money and stand on its own merits.
Most lefty gay and perverted art, will horrify and disgust everyone and rely on tax payer funded dollars and government owned galleries to be displayed.
A funny observation: One day I saw a thing on a website asking if I was left brained or right brained. Above the words was the silhouette of a woman turning around and around. A plain as day the woman was turning clockwise, my son, a concert pianist began to play one of Bach’s fugues and instantly the woman began turning counterclockwise. When he stopped playing the woman again reversed her pirouette.
You shouldn’t say faggot in a song,but you can belong to a religion that believes in killing them.I wonder if newfie(oh my,that may be offensive too)boy has lodged any complaints about a real threat to gays.
Heh I think 98.9 Jet fm played it as well
Never mess with rock gods or dj s
Indiana Homez @ 5:34 asks “Does intent, or taste factor into this discussion regarding the censorship of music on the airwaves?”
I have read the comments here on SDA and to articles in the newspapers and have yet to read someone opposed to this censorship articulating intent or taste in their opposition.
Personally I do not and never have listened to this style of music, but defend the right of anyone to produce it and to listen to it. I detested the music by KISS, but that is my right.
When listening to the radio I personally listen to classical, easy listening, big band, country and gospel, depending on the what I am involved in or the mood of the moment.