The British rock band Dire Straits (one of my personal favorites), has been around since 1977. One of their many hit singles, Money For Nothing, has been on the airwaves since it's release in 1985. But now, after 25 years of play on the air, the Canadien Broadcast Standards Council has deemed that the song is too offensive to be played in its original, unedited form. They have made this ruling based on one short segment of the lyrics:

There was initially a stir over the lyrics, and it seems to be well deserved, until you consider the song as a whole.

MFN was written in the first person, a song from the viewpoint of a less than intelligent, blue collar worker, whom the bands vocalist Mark Knopfler refers to as "a real ignoramus, hard hat mentality" in November of 1985's issue of Rolling Stone Magazine. The lyrics in question are the characters' response to seeing a music video on TV.

The general message of the song (according to the character) is that rock stars are the smart ones: the group doing the least amount of work, getting "money for nothing and chicks for free". He bemoans his own job "install[ing] microwave ovens... move[ing] these refridgerators, we got to install color tv's" and claims that "that ain't workin; that's the way you do it; you play the guitar on the MTV", and claims that worst thing rock stars have to worry about are blisters on their fingers.

Unfortunately, the message that was intended by the band offer a criticizing perspective of their own profession was apparently lost on an unnamed St. Johns, Newfoundland resident who compained about hearing the term "faggot" on his local radio station last February.

The CBSC announced the ban on the unedited version of the song (there is an edited version, lacking only the stanza in question, which has been released on several compilation albums and the anniversary edition of the album it originally appeared on, Brothers in Arms) on January 12th of this year, which prompted several radio stations to play the undedited version continuously for an hour in protest.

There also exist two edited versions of the song that keep the stanza, but substitute the word "faggot" for "mother" (as in motherfucker) and, in what may be an attempt at comedy, the new Canadien radio version has been changed by Knopfler to say "fudger", according to the band's keyboardist. Both of these alternatives seem to go completely against the original intent of the song, besides being ridiculous. Vocalist Knopfler has also been known to substitute the word"queenie"during live shows.

The whole thing is completely ridiculous. It's another sad case of content over message. Another moment where we as human beings have collectively allowed one human to be censored in order to perpetuate one person's fantasy that we all live in goddamn Pleasantville. I will personally guarantee that you will hear so called "dirty" words even if you never turn on a radio for your entire life. So why bother subjecting artists to boring rules that prevent them from making music the way they wanted? That would be like telling Michaelangelo that he wasn't allowed to use the color red. All it does is take away from the overall image. Now, I understand that not everyone who swears in a song has a reason other than shock value, but there are artists that do and they should be allowed to paint with all the colors they can find. 

To be offended by the song you would have to ignore the intent and message behind it, and if you did that, then you can just ignore the word choice too, and stop pissing on my music.