Canada radio stations told to censor Dire Straits

Canadian radio station have been warned to censor the 1985 Dire Straits hit "Money for Nothing,' after a complaint that the lyrics of the Grammy Award-winning song were derogatory to gay men.

A St. John;s, Newfoundland, station should have edited the song to remove the word "faggot" because it violates Canada's human rights standards, according to ruling by the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council.

A unnamed listener to OZ FM complained to the industry watchdog last year after hearing the song. The council said it realized Dire Straits uses the word sarcastically, and its use might have been acceptable in 1985 when it was released, but said it was now inappropriate.

"The decision doesn't really relate to the Dire Straits song at the end of the day, the decision relates to the word in question," said Ron Cohen, the council's chairman.

The ruling comes in the wake of an uproar sparked by a U.S. scholar who decided to publish an edition of Mark Twain's novel "Huckleberry Finn" that would remove the word "nigger" to make it less offensive to some readers.