Free speech is fine, unless it might offend

**Posted by Phineas

Now a music-industry censor is telling radio stations to retroactively edit songs to avoid offending anyone, eh?

Canadian radio station have been warned to censor the 1985 Dire Straits hit “Money for Nothing,” after a complaint that the lyrics of the Grammy Award-winning song were derogatory to gay men.

A St. John’s, Newfoundland, station should have edited the song to remove the word “faggot” because it violates Canada’s human rights standards, according to ruling this week by the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council.

A unnamed listener to OZ FM in the Atlantic Coast province complained to the industry watchdog last year after hearing the song, which features Dire Straits frontman Mark Knopfler and fellow rock star Sting.

The council said it realized Dire Straits uses the word sarcastically, and its use might have been acceptable in 1985 when the best-selling “Brothers in Arms” album was released, but said it was now inappropriate.

“The decision doesn’t really relate to the Dire Straits song at the end of the day, the decision relates to the word in question,” Ron Cohen, the council’s chairman, told the Canadian Broadcasting Corp.

Actually, Mr. Cohen, it relates to the unalienable right to free speech and treating people like adults who can handle hearing a mildly naughty word without having their self-esteem crushed, particularly when meant satirically. (And even if it were meant as a genuine insult.) Tell me, where does it stop? Re-editing TV reruns? Forbidding the performance of Mozart’s Idomeneo? Censoring poetry readings on the air? If it may give offense, shall we then ban The View? (Okay, you might have an argument with that one.)

Really, this kind of paternalism has no place in a liberal democracy, whether done by the government or a non-governmental agency, and Canadians should give the nannies at the CBSC an uncensored piece of their mind.

RELATED: Other posts on Canada and free speech.

(Crossposted at Public Secrets)

camojack says:

January 17, 2011 at 1:23 am

Free speech police?

Kate says:

January 17, 2011 at 8:19 am

How long ago did that song come out? Didn’t Tipper Gore try this years ago? Oh, that was just about violence and explicit sexual content. Labeling dealt with that issues. The airways are another issue…isn’t this about what people want to hear and ratings.

Let’s clean up the speech and watch the Hip-Hop ratings go down. Please, explain to me why they can go on and on about sex, hos, drug use and every evil under the son. A “gay” slur is used in the Dire Straits song that is SO offensive. In true context they were commenting on how easy it was to get rich in the music industry.

So let’s go back into the past and sterilize things….sort of like banning the reading of Huck Finn.

mike in Baltimoe says:

January 17, 2011 at 9:02 am

Would it be politically incorrect to call Canadians a bunch of pansy wussies?

And to think these folks are responsible for defending the northern border of our continent.
Me thinks we are in deep doodoo.

Steve Skubinna says:

January 17, 2011 at 2:26 pm

Cold day in Hell I let some Canuck petty functionary limit my First Amendment rights. And as we already know, “Freedom of Speech is a US concept” so they don’t give it much weight. It still counts down here, Maple-breath.

Way to shame the sacrifices your troops made at Dieppe and Normandy. How about you go piss on their graves next Armistice Day (or whatever you call it up there, if you still bother observing it)?

Dana says:

January 18, 2011 at 8:23 am

Our esteemed guest host wrote:

Actually, Mr. Cohen, it relates to the unalienable right to free speech and treating people like adults who can handle hearing a mildly naughty word without having their self-esteem crushed, particularly when meant satirically.

As an American, you should appreciate our Constitution’s absolute acknowledgment of our freedom of speech, because the Canadians don’t have that right. This section in Wikipedia notes the exceptions to the freedom of expression granted in Section 2(b) of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Many Western democracies have what they see as “reasonable” limits on freedom of speech. Holocaust denial can get you thrown in jail in a few European countries, including Austria, pro-Nazi speech is punishable in much of Europe, speech which supports discrimination based on race, religion, ethnic origin, sex, sexual orientation, etc, etc, etc can be punished in many democratic countries.