Friday, January 14, 2011

We've Hit A New Low

I don't blog often. To this day I don't even know where the term blog came from or what it means. But once in a while something happens that just drives a man to rant. Today such a something happened. In its infinite wisdom the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council (CBSC) has banned Money for Nothing by Dire Straits.

On the heels of the decision in the states to edit Mark Twain's Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer, the CBSC has found that a radio station in Newfoundland breached the Canadian Association of Broadcasters’ (CAB) Code of Ethics and Equitable Portrayal Code in its broadcast of the song “Money for Nothing” by Dire Straits on February 1, 2010. The song contained a word that referred to sexual orientation in a derogatory way. All radio stations who are members of the Canadian Broadcast Standard’s Counsel must adhere to the code.

So ONE woman in Newfoundland complained about the word "faggot" and now the song is banned which means it can only be played in an edited form. Where the hell do we live, North Korea? One stupid person complains and a song is banned? Since when did one person make the rules? Don't we need a majority of people in a democracy?

ONE woman complained about a 25 year old song and now it has to be edited. 25 years old people! Does this woman live in a cave? There are what, 30+ million people in Canada? Is there anyone who hasn't heard this song? 25 years later she complains? Get a life!

By the way, the word "fag" is allowed but not faggot. How long before "I Shot the Sheriff" or "Hey Joe" (who's going down to shoot his old lady) is banned? How long before "Imagine" is banned? It's not as if I'm a huge fan of Dire Straits but censorship stinks! Here's a novel idea, and this goes for the Mark Twain editing too, how about EDUCATING rather than relying on the government to babysit you or your kids. Or here's an even better idea, change the fucking channel idiot!

Banning song lyrics is a slippery slope. A downward slope. Banning words gives them power, instead of hiding them we need to look at them in their context, (Money for Nothing and Tom Sawyer are both about intolerance,) their history, their meaning. Hey I'm all for hate speech laws but this is not that. This out and out censorship and it's not right!

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