TORONTO — Canada’s broadcast standards council has ruled that Dire Straits’ 1985 hit “Money for Nothing” should be censored because of a homosexual slur in its lyrics.
The council said the British band’s use of a slur referring to gay people three times in the song breaches the national broadcasters’ code of ethics. The council said an edited version of the song could be played.
Helen Kennedy, executive director of Egale Canada, a gay-advocacy organization, said Thursday that the decision is the right move, given the number of teenage suicides that took place in the U.S. last year after the youths were subjected to homophobic bullying.
The council said it realized Dire Straits used the word sarcastically but said it was inappropriate.
The Associated Press
