DIRE STRAITS Update: No Way, Eh! Canadian Station Defies 'Money For Nothing' Ban

January 14, 2011, 13 years ago

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FoxNews.com has issued the following report from Jo Piazza:

Starting at 8 PM Friday night, the Edmonton, Canada classic rock radio station K97 will play the recently banned DIRE SRAITS hit, 'Money For Nothing', nonstop and unedited for an hour in protest of a Canadian regulator’s decision to ban the original version of the song, first released in 1985, because it contains the word "fa---t.."

“We’re not afraid of repercussions. We have never had a complaint in the 25 years we have played the song,” K97 Music Director Todd James told FOX411. “We will play it in its entirety and unedited as we have always done and if someone wants to file a complaint we will take it from there."

Read the full report at this location.

According to Spectator Wire Services, the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council has ruled that 'Money For Nothing' (which features THE POLICE's Sting on background vocals) is too offensive for Canadian radio.

The ruling, released Wednesday, was in response to a complaint against St. John’s radio station CHOZ-FM. The listener complained that the word faggot – which appears three times in the song is “extremely offensive” to gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people.

The council is an independent body created by Canadian radio and television broadcasters to review the standards of their content.

The award-winning song was the first single off of Dire Straits’ album Brothers in Arms and has been an international music staple for 25 years.

The council ruled that the song contravenes its ethics code which 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.”

It ruled that “faggot,” when used to describe a homosexual, is “even if entirely or marginally acceptable in earlier days, is no longer so.”

Offending Lyrics from Money for Nothing, by Dire Straits:

The little faggot with the earring and the makeup

Yeah, buddy, that’s his own hair

That little faggot’s got his own jet airplane

That little faggot, he’s a millionaire



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