Ottawa, April 1, 1999 – The Canadian Broadcast Standards Council (CBSC) today released its decision concerning a broadcast on CFNY-FM (Toronto) of the Humble & Fred morning show which contained a short audio excerpt of the adult television cartoon series South Park in which one of the characters said that he was “licking carpet” so that he could become a lesbian. The morning show hosts added a parody choral conclusion to the tune of Beethoven’s Ninth which went “That’s disgusting, Hallelujah.” A complainant indicated that “the joke disparaged lesbians based upon their sexual orientation”.
The Ontario Regional Council considered the complaint under the human rights provision of the Canadian Association of Broadcasters’ (CAB) Code of Ethics. It found no breach of the Code. While the Council noted that sexual orientation had, since 1994, been a protected ground pursuant to its interpretation of the human rights provision, it did not consider the “joke” in question to be abusively discriminatory.
In this case, while the Council is fully aware of the attempt to make fun of a sexual proclivity of lesbian couples, it is equally aware that the particular sexual practice is one engaged in by heterosexual partners as well. The resounding reference to Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony’s Hallelujah chorus to underscore the allegedly “disgusting” nature of the practice delivers the program’s less than serious perspective on that sexual activity but the truth is clearly that South Park’s creators (and CFNY-FM by extension) thereby comment more on that practice than its practitioners. An irreverent spoofing it is, not unlike the general thrust of South Park itself. In poor taste, likely; however, in the Council’s view, it would be a narrow interpretation of both South Park and CFNY-FM’s broadcasts to conclude that the comments made regarding this non-exclusive sexual activity were intended to represent an abusively discriminatory undermining of lesbianism per se. In the view of the Ontario Regional Council, it falls far more into the category of the k.d. lang self-parody in CHQR-FM re Forbes and Friends decision noted above than into the category of bitter, hostile, abusively discriminatory material dealt with by this Council on some previous occasions. Whether or not it passes a taste test is not for the Council to judge, but the broadcast does not amount to a breach of any of the broadcaster Codes.
Canada’s private broadcasters have created industry standards in the form of Codes on ethics, gender portrayal and television violence by which they expect their members will abide. They also created the CBSC, which is the self-regulatory body with the responsibility of administering those Codes, as well as the Code dealing with journalistic practices created by the Radio Television News Directors Association Canada (RTNDA). More than 430 radio and television stations and specialty services from across Canada are members of the Council.
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All CBSC decisions, Codes, links to members’ and other web sites, and related information are available on the World Wide Web at www.cbsc.ca. For more information, please contact the National Chair of the CBSC, Ron Cohen, at (###) ###-####.