Thursday, January 13, 2011

Dire Straits: Banned In Canada

Oh the horror of it. The prudes in Canada who sit on something called the Broadcast Standards Council have banned the playing of an almost 30 year old song performed by Dire Straits entitled "Money for Nothing" over objectionable lyrics. It seems they used the word faggot. Just so those who weren't aware here is the verse that has caused such anguish in the Great Frozen North.
The little faggot with the earring and the makeup
Yeah buddy, that's his own hair
That little faggot got his own jet airplane
That little faggot he's a millionaire


No word on if they find any of the lyrics contained in the gangsta' rap style songs where they talk about rape, killing cops, and glorification of drugs and violence as objectionable.

BTW, you stupid Canucks with your frost bitten brains, there are versions of the song which were released commercially that do not contain that particular verse, but hey don't let that stop you from slapping yourselves on the back and shoving your noses into the air from high atop your lofty perch on the moral high ground.

11 comments:

Eli said...

Congrats!  You have no idea how the government of Canada works, and come off as a jackass all in one post.  See it works like this:  CBSC decides if a song is too bad to be aired.  Otherwise it can be aired, that's providing that the radio station has enough canadian content via the CRTC Cancon doctrine.  The reality is this, demographics have shifted here.  And they're trying to try the PC train...you know like the same shit they're trying to pull(more successfully in the US).

Useful tip:  Speech is not free in Canada, and thus limited.  However things like this can be appealed easily.  That is if anyone actually cares.

rich b said...

What fucking gutless turds. Knoppler was making fun of ignorance and the Canucks just had the meaning of the song fly over their heads. EXcuse my spelling - I just got out of a week n the hospital with a fucked up stomach. bTW, MTV and VH1 haven't played the original version inyears. In fact MTV doesn't seem to play any thing other than shit and fake reality shows anyomre.

Jim said...

The irony of a ban for these particular lyrics is just too fun for words.  And I no longer the album from which this song came.  Time to make some $ for the band and buy it.

Thanks CBSC!

James Hlavac said...

It is stupid to ban a song for a word -- especially a 30 year old song. As one of the "faggot" persuasion, I found it fine 30 years ago to hear anything in any song about us, for we were invisible indeed. And since the lyrics point out the wealth, in an ironic way, it fit well with "Living well is the best revenge" -- which was an old gay motto. Once again some leftist is using gay folks to rile up the general population against us by assuming we want "special rights" or something. With friends like these... harrumph. 

Meanwhile, Alberta, a Canadian province, is still spending tax payer money to supposedly "cure" us. Seems some 1700 gay folks were allegedly "saved" over the past 30 years from whatever ails us. Yah, sure. Money for nothing, I'm sure. 

Gmac said...

Who cares, its Canada...

Blue Collar Todd said...

What do expect from a country that is forcing gay marriage on the population and those who do marriage ceremonies?

http://www.bluecollarphilosophy.com/2011/01/canada-forces-gay-marriage-on-its-marriage-commissioners.html

Blue Collar Todd said...

Folow up thought. Does this make Sting an ipso facto "homophobe"?

Michael Ryan said...

You blew the line.  The lyric is "yeah, buddy, that's his own affair". And a lot of US radio stations also play an edited version of the song.  Very annoying.

Michael Ryan said...

Hey!  You've got a Sting theme going tonight! What's next?

Jacob Mauceri said...

What I find hilarious about this post is that you preach against ignorance, and then drop this little gem: "BTW, you stupid Canucks with your frost bitten brains..."
Hypocrisy. Gotta love it.

Louise said...

A little bit of fact checking never hurts. First, the CBSC is a private organization, not a government agency. It's membership is drawn from the multitude of private broadcasters throughout Canada.

Secondly, there has been a huge backlash to this decision from the broadcasters themselves. Over the past several days, many of them chose to play the song, in its original version, non-stop for a full hour during the peak listening time, in protest. There has been a virtual flood of editorials in our newspapers and rants from our talk radio personalities condemning the decision.  And bloggers have gone bezerk and the song has been downloaded by thousands of Canadians. (Dire Straits couldn't have asked for better publicity.)  Finally, the CRTC, which is a government agency, roughy equivalent to your FCC, has asked the CBSC to reconsider it's decision.

The decision of the CBSC was made following a complaint from one person. One person! And that little factoid is also being beaten up by the afformentioned media and bloggers.

In short, this decision was made by a group of individuals that may indeed have frost bitten brains, but it hardly represents the sentiment of most Canadians.