South Stormont ON – Deputy Mayor Tammy A Hart of South Stormont Ontario sent us a letter to the editor regarding the song “Money for Nothing” by Mark Knopfler and his band Dire Straits.
The song is being banned of late for the term “Faggot” which I believe was his protest over Boy George’s popularity at the time…or was it George Michael while he was with Wham? I guess that if Mark Twain can be santized for public consumption rock music can be too.
Now Mr. Knopfler is sensitive and generally uses the term “Queenie” now in most later live performances. You also have to remember the context of the original song which came as MTV crested our horizons and helped destroy real music as Gimmicky lip synching Milli Vanilli type music folded into Madonna and eventually Britney Spears.
But I’m a fan of George Carlin and Lenny Bruce. I do believe in Free Speech even when it’s not popular. I understand the caustic nature of the term as well. I am hoping that this letter can create some very civil dialog about Free Speech. I’m am hoping that our amazing viewers and posters here at The Cornwall Free News can do this debate justice.
Not sure what her appeal to our MP will do as he seems more like a Lawrence Welk kinda guy….
Ms Hart will be guest hosting our Political Round Table Tuesday morning as well on Seawayradio.com along with Joe Gunn as Denis Sabourin is off to the South for a few well deserved weeks of holiday.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dlPjxz4LGak
Here is Ms. Hart’s letter.
ATTENTION: MP Guy Lauzon.
I need you to stand up for democracy in Canada. I want our Freedom of Rights restored and I want Dire Straits “Money for Nothing” PUT BACK ON THE RADIO.
This song is a classic, it’s been around since the 80’s, its got a great beat and because of ONE complaint in reference to “gays” the CRTC/CBSC decided to ban this song in Canada.
What nonsense! If they really want to do justice to society ban Rap music we’ll ALL be better off. Where is this country headed?
Tammy A. Hart
Newington, ON
(Comments and opinions of Editorials, Letters to the Editor, and comments from readers are purely their own and don’t necessarily reflect those of the owners of the Cornwall Free News, their staff, or sponsors.)
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I honestly think it’s unfair to take ONE complaint over ONE word and consider it gold after 25 years! This is 2011 people. If music is going to be censored then you better start playing fair and get rid of ALL music that gives reference to sex, drugs, suicide….wouldn’t that make for boring radio air play? I think it’s time to grow up and use your brain…I mean, a certain radio station now airs hockey games instead of music…so you know what I do? I turn the radio off or change the station…it’s THAT simple…we all have our own choices in what we want to listen too and just because the song offends ONE person…doesn’t mean it offends the rest of us!
We’re SO sorry Ms. Hart but your prejudice is your demise, you state that you want Mr. Lauzon to do something about a song that was banned from being played publicly in Canada ? Do you think this song’s beat will march our country out of it’s deficit and abolish the HST, Bring our troops home ? I highly doubt that Mr. Lauzon is going to waste my tax dollars pleading with the CRTC and the government of Canada to reinstate the playing of “Money For Nothing” on public airwaves because it has a “Great Beat”, we have more important situations at hand and where do you get the right to decide “we’ll ALL be better off”? Please do me a favor, stop wasting my tax dollars by sending letters of unimportants to the editor.
Good luck with Guy Lauzon. I doubt he’ll do anything for you because he’s been receiving “Money for Nothing” for years now!
Though at times I feel effort can be wasted, this one leads me to say OK. A letter that took 5 minutes isn’t too much, but maybe too little. Yes many other world issues are much more important to deal with. But if we all took that 5 minutes of out of our own ‘valued’ time to change some little things, some of the bigger issues may not even have to be mentioned. Though a song, gay rights and censorship are highlighted in it and those are hardly light topics. Yes the bigger picture lives in this small city of Cornwall. No harm is raising some concern about it in a five minute letter. Regardless who you send it to.
Even if Lauzon may not hear it, anyone who reads it may think more about a topic that should be debated.
This is about more than just censoring just one song. It’s about political correctness and rewriting history. If you forget your past you are doomed to repeat it. Change the words to a song, delete words in classic literature and you will forget how we achieved the rights and freedoms we have now. We can’t change the intolerances and injustices of the past but we can learn from them. If you deny they ever existed then you cannot appreciate the sacrifices of those who worked to change them.
Everyone should take 5 minutes to comment on this situation.
I’m thinking everyone should go talk to some fags and queers on this issue. All the fags, queers, queens and lezzies I’ve hung out with from Southern California to here all have the same attitude. Whatever word you use, do so with respect. Perhaps, pick up a back issue of The Body Politic. Arizona, what do you want to know? Americans assassinate or attempt to assassinate a full quarter of their Presidents. In Canada all I can think of is Darcy McGee and Laporte. I gotta say, I’m not sure how Martin Luther King would react to today’s rap music. I lean towards Bill Cosby’s take on it. I read Tom Sawyer at about the same time most kids did, at ten years old. My parents said there was a bad word in it, don’t use it, enjoy the story. I just got off the radio phone with Mark Twain. He was staying at Tesla’s house. I told him about the problem with the N word. He spent the first 20 minutes cursing. The substance of it seemed to have to do with critical thinking and not to white wash his work, said it was William Burroughs who was a literary outlaw, not him. I told him critical thinking was banned by the Ontario School Board. John McFetridge won the award for most racial slurs in a recent Canadian novel, by the way – no one said a word about that. Then I hooked up with some chicks and broads over at the greasy spoon and they didn’t care for the concept of un-words. They laughed at the idea of ‘money for nothing and chicks for free’. Bunch of other Canucks I met, said they didn’t care for Chairmen Mao’s idea of political correctness either. “Save the cultural revolution for someone else.” I hung out with the Reds for awhile too, my Injun friends that is on the Rez, not in Peking. Sometimes they call me a white man – I looked in the mirror – couldn’t disagree. Saturday night, I’m going to get together with some beatnik pals of mine and knock back some Dago red and think about the good old days when straights like Mary Brown censored breasts from Restricted films while working at the Ontario Film Board, so that women wouldn’t see breasts in the movies. Flatfoot Jack gave me a wave as he drove by in his Paddy wagon last night. I felt safe. Turns out that the ‘good old days’ depends on your ethnic back ground, sex, age and the time of day. A lot of newcomers to Canada come from fascist countries and came here to escape that. A lot of old timers raised their children on what happened in world war two and what to look out for so that nazis don’t rise up again. For the nazis, world war two is still on and that’s why they control the cocaine supply in South America. Bullets and words are not the same things and one does not lead to the other. You just have to watch a guy shoot a pen out of someone’s hand to understand that. Using a name and slurring a name are two distinctly separate actions. The historical context and value laden information of a word are wonderful things. I wish the fascists of the banal would stop cutting up the elegance and historicity of the dictionary. Don’t be scared of the alphabet – no one needs permission to read.
well said Roy! You get the cookie of the day!
And yet — irony of ironies — regardless of which side of the argument you’re on, the old days just look better and better.
(BTW… good one Stan)
Soon they’ll ban Pink Floyd and such.. for songs written 30 + years ago.. I can slowly see it all unfolding now..
All rock ‘n roll is an abomination created by the devil.
It seems that the CBSC has no legal authority to ban anything from the airwaves. It’s looking like radio stations will be telling the CBSC to take a flyin’ phuck at the mooooon!!
Don’t get the pastor started Furtz.. lol 😉
Seems to me some special interest groups are expanding, and this geoup is one of them. It was not that long ago when gay was the chosen word, now, it is “gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered” that is said when referencing this element of society. Maybe that is what another element of society, white English Canada, should do, get a better name and a special interest group spokesperson.
I doubt that I heard the unsanitized version of Money for Nothing more than twice since it came out, and never thought of hurting anyone, why complain now? Getting small victories leads to one big one over time does it not, and at who’s expense?
As Brad above says, there are more issues that deserve some attention, expenses of and providing of core services, core human needs and pulling together for the greater good.
The Canadian Broadcast Standards Council (CBSC) is not a Canadian Court room and their standards don’t reflect any one’s vision. Obeying the CBSC is like obeying an order you know to be wrong. Songs on the radio have done a lot to help fags and dykes over the years. What about that great show on 90.3 FM out of McGill called ‘Dykes on Mikes’ – are they next? Stupid CBSC are acting like dimwitted fascists and paving the way for the death of traditional radio and the rise of internet radio. Perhaps they conspire with the telephone companies who want the radio frequencies anyway. Who knows? Xuck the CBSC and Xuck anyone who obey’s their mind closing sanitized white trash rules designed specifically to harm the greater good. The CBSC is throwing faggots on the fire to burn their witch of free speech.
Roy, The Canadian Broadcast Standards Council is a crock, and this stupid “ruling” will just break that crock into pieces. If you listen to most commercial and all “Christian” radio stations, you will find that standards are pretty much nonexistent. The only governing body that has any clout is the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), and they will only step in if there is a clear case of a law being broken.