People know that this was a song about written about Motley Crue and their life of excess in the 80s, right?? Friggin' bleeding hearts of the world unite...
Monday for Nothing is the first song the CBSC has censored. The CBSC rules on both radio and television broadcast complaints.
This is really getting stupid.
First, the CBSC doesn't censor anything. It makes rullings on its own membership and its own rules. The consequences are nothing close to a "ban" on the song like TMZ would have you believe.
Second, that is dead ass wrong. There have been many rulings on songs.
I have never seen so many inaccurate reports on a subject since I spent a week in the US and watched Fox News. And no one seems to care, just jumping on a sensational topic. Doesn't anyone check sources anymore? And newspapers wonder why they are dying when we have to come to gossip boards for facts.
K-97 is going to play the song on a continuous loop for an hour tonight? I see what they're trying to do but...why? Do they honestly think the average listener is going to tune in to hear the same song played over and over again? No...they'll listen once and then flip the station. Trying to make a point is no reason to make bad radio.
Minutes after finishing typing the above, I see this CP story that has been picked up by newspapers everywhere. A small quote:
"The ban applies to every Canadian radio station. But the independent watchdog organization only takes action if there is a complaint, so if another station were to play the unedited version of the song, action would only be taken if a listener took up the cause again".
That is absolutely not true! Not every Canadian radio station in a member of the CBSC. And again....nothing was "banned".
I guess I am the only one that finds this much more worrisome. That isn't TMZ....that is the CP. Ridiculous.
I'm sure if the Canadian Broadcast Standards Commission could ask for a "do over" in regards to their decision in regards to the Dire Straits "money for nothing" scenario this week they surely would.
Here's a song that has been played thousands and thousands of times around the world for a couple of decades and now "one" isolated complaint in a smaller market in Eastern Canada has ignited a censorship issue that is resonating all around the world and once again casts our Canadian broadcast system as being terribly "out of touch" with reality.
First off there is a very long list of songs which some would deem to contain potentially offensive language (or content) and if we are going to comb through twenty or thirty years of music and lodge complaints about those songs the CBSC is going to be very busy.
As I said in my Edmonton Sun article "are we going to start putting sweaters on nude statues around the world now?"
The problem is the CBSC system itself.
One single complaint goes to a volunteer panel who, after several months, debate and vote on the complaint. They then issue a decision which tells the station they simply have to apologize for the complaint therein bringing the complaint forefront to the entire industry as well as the stations listeners.
Social media, that wasn't around when the CBSC started, now fires that decision out at break neck speed to thousands of people within minutes of it's release.
In this particular case one complaint launched about eight or nine months ago has rippled not only across our fair country but throughout the "world" causing stations to either modify the song or, as we are seeing by many stations, to declare they will not edit the artists legendary work, thus setting up a scenario where the CBSC may have to address punishment to each particular station if "one" person complains in each of those markets.
Recently there has been some discussion at the CRTC level about giving our broadcast commissions the power to fine offending broadcasters for flagrant rule violations which sets up a whole other major debate too.
Look I'm not a prude and there are some things I'd prefer not to hear or see on our airwaves but over my career I found that dialogue and compromise with a listener who complains is usually the way to resolve these problems.
Most of the culpability of programming comes at the Management level and most Managers are sanctioned about what they can say or do in our Canadian system in fear that any conflict with the CBSC could cause them (or the company) grief down the road so our system of complaints really isn't an open forum and maybe it should be.
Ron Cohen is a nice, smart man, and as I said in the opening I will bet he wasn't ready for the firestorm this has caused but if this is the song/complaint that gets some dialogue going as to establishing a more efficient system to address "offensive" broadcast complaints then maybe this Money for Nothing complaint can turn in to Money for Something.
Then maybe after they get that fixed we can address a long overdue assessment of another issue that is long overdue...Can Con.
Sorry...can of worms!
Marty Forbes is the President of Radiowise Inc and reachable atmforbes07@shaw.ca
If owners keep offering to play 40% Can Con to obtain a new broadcast license the issue will never go away. I love FCC model of spectrum auctions! Every now and then a 100 or so new FM Construction Permits go up for auction and the highest bidder simply gets it. End of story.
K-97 is going to play the song on a continuous loop for an hour tonight? I see what they're trying to do but...why? Do they honestly think the average listener is going to tune in to hear the same song played over and over again? No...they'll listen once and then flip the station. Trying to make a point is no reason to make bad radio.
So far they've been mentioned on all the local TV newscasts, got all kinds of ink the papers, both national casts, national casts in the US, and after a quick google a couple of minutes ago, websites all over the world. Of course when all the CBSC complaints come in, they'll get a ton of press across the board as well. Cost? $0.00. Win.
Maybe its a good way to get rid of some of these classic rock stations. If there's 3 of them, let 2 of them play the song and get their liscense pulled and then there's only 1 left! or if there's 2 of them, 1 plays it and again, there's only 1 classic rock station left. Actually, maybe every crappy radio station should get on the Dire Straits bandwagon...then they all get their liscense pulled and presto! no crappy radio stations!
So far they've been mentioned on all the local TV newscasts, got all kinds of ink the papers, both national casts, national casts in the US, and after a quick google a couple of minutes ago, websites all over the world. Of course when all the CBSC complaints come in, they'll get a ton of press across the board as well. Cost? $0.00. Win.
Didn't think about it that way but you have a good point. I'm willing to admit when I'm wrong :)
OTTAWA - A censorship watchdog is being defiant after receiving a wave of criticism over its decision to ban the nation-wide broadcast of an uncut Dire Straits song containing the word "faggot."
Ronald Cohen, the national chair of the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council (CBSC), told QMI Agency he sees nothing wrong with the fact one person was able to stop every private radio station across Canada from playing the popular 1985 song 'Money for Nothing.'
"The number of complaints is irrelevant," Cohen said. "Everybody is on our back about it (but) I think it was absolutely the right decision. This was a word that has no place today on the airwaves."
Cohen is unconcerned that the public was shut out from CBSC's deliberations and sees no problems with the fact that neither broadcasters nor Canadians have any avenues to appeal the decision.
"If there was an appeal process, it would be cumbersome," he said.
Dire Straits' keyboardist Guy Fletcher joined a chorus of fans on his website Friday calling the ruling "outrageous" and the council's decision "hilarious" for having missed the point of the band's song about homophobia.
"WHAT a waste of paper," he wrote of the decision. "Canada will now be forced to ban all Rap music since the 'N' word is uttered in most recordings."
Ottawa radio talk show host Lowell Green has been cited several times by the CBSC.
"I was told that if I was going to use irony or sarcasm on the air, I must alert my listeners that was sarcasm," Green said of one case where he had to apologize on air fearing his radio station would lose its license.
"The fact that one person can make one complaint about one song that has been played for 25 years, I find astonishing -- especially when you consider that millions of people can sign a petition opposed to the HST and nobody pays attention to it," he added.
The B.C. Civil Liberties Association's David Eby called the CBSC's decision "very patronizing" and suggested the federal broadcast regulator, the CRTC, should take over its functions to ensure some public oversight.
"It is difficult for us to understand how this private body can have such a profound influence on what Canadians see and hear without any accountability," he said.
The CBSC has been the private broadcasters' self-regulator since 1990, when they decided they didn't want the federal regulator to oversee their content.
Although neither body has the power to levy fines or stop the broadcast of any songs (even those banned), the CRTC can revoke television or radio licenses or refuse to renew them when they are about to lapse.
"We are a sugar-coated society and it is too bad," said Darryl Choronzey, host of the TV program Going Fishing, who was the subject of a CBSC complaint for political bias.
"If somebody doesn't like it, they can turn the radio off or turn the TV off."
This may spell the beginning of the end of the CBSC. They are supposed to represent the people....next they will ban Christmas Trees...
From Wiki:
A Yule log is a large wooden log which is burned in the hearth as a part of traditional Yule or Christmas celebrations in several European cultures. It can be a part of the Winter Solstice festival or the Twelve Days of Christmas, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, or Twelfth Night.
The expression "Yule log" has also come to refer to log-shaped Christmas cakes, also known as "chocolate logs" or "Bûche de Noël". The Yule log is related to other Christmas and Yuletide traditions such as the Ashen faggot.[1]
Based on my religious beliefs and sexual orientation as a Jewish Hindi Muslim Aboriginal Bisexual Woman, I would like to protest the broadcast of the Shaw Yule Log. It should be renamed the Shaw Piece of Burning Holiday Wood.
A Yule log is a large wooden log which is burned in the hearth as a part of traditional Yule or Christmas celebrations in several European cultures. It can be a part of the Winter Solstice festival or the Twelve Days of Christmas, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, or Twelfth Night.
The expression "Yule log" has also come to refer to log-shaped Christmas cakes, also known as "chocolate logs" or "Bûche de Noël". The Yule log is related to other Christmas and Yuletide traditions such as the Ashen faggot.[1]
Based on my religious beliefs and sexual orientation as a Jewish Hindi Muslim Aboriginal Bisexual Woman, I would like to protest the broadcast of the Shaw Yule Log. It should be renamed the Shaw Piece of Burning Holiday Wood.
I take offense to the term holiday. I don't celebrate "holidays".
A Yule log is a large wooden log which is burned in the hearth as a part of traditional Yule or Christmas celebrations in several European cultures. It can be a part of the Winter Solstice festival or the Twelve Days of Christmas, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, or Twelfth Night.
The expression "Yule log" has also come to refer to log-shaped Christmas cakes, also known as "chocolate logs" or "Bûche de Noël". The Yule log is related to other Christmas and Yuletide traditions such as the Ashen faggot.[1]
Based on my religious beliefs and sexual orientation as a Jewish Hindi Muslim Aboriginal Bisexual Woman, I would like to protest the broadcast of the Shaw Yule Log. It should be renamed the Shaw Piece of Burning Holiday Wood.
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