Music fans around the world were up in arms Thursday after a broadcast watchdog deemed the Dire Straits hit “Money for Nothing” unfit for Canadian radio because of a gay slur in the lyrics, while others applauded the decision and argued society has changed since the song came out in 1985.

The Canadian Broadcast Standards Council ruled that the song violates the industry's code of ethics because the lyrics include the word “faggot” three times.

The scrutiny of the Dire Straits song was prompted by a complaint from a listener of radio station CHOZ-FM in St. John's, Nfld. The broadcaster argued that the song had been played countless times since its release decades ago and has won music-industry awards.

A CBSC panel concluded that the word “faggot,” even if once acceptable, has evolved to become unacceptable in most circumstances.

The panel noted that “Money for Nothing” would be acceptable for broadcast if suitably edited.

Dire Straits’ front man, Mark Knopfler, continues to perform the song in concert but over the years has taken to substituting different words for the “faggot” lyric, including “queenie” and “maggot.”

The decision nabbed international headlines (with Fox News and TV Guide among the U.S. websites to pick up on the story) and prompted furious debate on Twitter, where “Dire Straits” and “CBSC” were both trending topics in Canada.

“I think it's extremely important to take these words out of lyrics in popular culture,” said Helen Kennedy, executive director of Egale Canada, an organization that promotes equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans-identified people.

“It perpetuates the stereotype, it’s negative and it's offensive. If you look to the origin of the word, it's disgusting.”

Radio veteran Alan Cross says the issue isn't necessarily the song, but the inconsistency of the rules. And he points out that it only takes one complaint to set such changes in motion.

“When the decision is rendered in favour of the complainant, it's like: ‘Wait a second, it's 34 million to one against?’ ” said Cross, the host of The Ongoing History of New Music on Toronto radio station 102.1 The Edge and the curator of exploremusic.com.

“It's the perceived inconsistencies: ‘Why can I watch Family Guy at 7 o'clock and there doesn't seem to be a problem there . . . but now I can't listen to a song that I've been listening to my whole life?’ ”

The Canadian Broadcast Standards Council is an independent watchdog that deals with complaints from the public. CHOZ-FM must announce the council's latest decision — which carries no monetary penalty — on air.

The song was a massive hit upon its release in 1985. It won a Grammy, reached No. 1 on the charts in Canada and the U.S. and spawned a famous music video that featured crude computer animation and became interwoven with the popularity of the then-fledgling music network MTV.

Yet Cross points out that sanitized versions of the song have always existed — even its original seven-inch pressing, he said, arrived without the verse in question.

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At the time, there was debate over whether the song was homophobic. But Knopfler, who wrote the song, responded by pointing out that the lyric was meant with some irony. He has said he actually wrote the song in a hardware store, after he heard an employee watching MTV and complaining about what he saw.

The Canadian Press