Ottawa, January 15, 1999 – The Canadian Broadcast Standards Council (CBSC) today released its decision concerning a broadcast of The Lowell Green Show on CFRA-AM (Ottawa) in which the host took a tongue-in-cheek approach to deal with the controversy surrounding the findings of the Somalia Inquiry Commission. A listener complained that this broadcast was racist and incited hatred against people of Somali origin.
The Ontario Regional Council considered the complaint under the “human rights” provision of the Code of Ethics of the Canadian Association of Broadcasters (CAB). The Council noted that, although the issue in question may “on the surface ... appear straightforward” as it involves “the use of terminology which has every appearance of being abusively discriminatory”, it was rendered “necessarily more complex” by the broadcaster’s contention that Lowell Green was “merely being facetious and cynical, characteristics of the host which ... are well-known to his listeners.” Regarding the pertinence of this argument, the Council stated that
the rhetorical tools of sarcasm, parody, facetiousness, irony, hyperbole and the like may be an effective means of expressing an editorial perspective, [but] the use of these devices does not ... render the user impervious to any claim that the host has, in a particular instance, overstepped the bounds of Canada’s broadcast standards.
The Council found that, in this case, the host’s use of sarcasm did lead to a breach of the Code.
The Ontario Regional Council understands perfectly well that Lowell Green was trying to ridicule the decision of the Federal Government to disband the Somalia Inquiry. ... The Council does not consider that his attempt to achieve his goal was poorly conceived but it does consider that it was poorly executed. Careful thought before the fact would have led the host to understand that his comments would likely offend not only the brunt of his barbs, namely, the Federal Government, but also persons of Somali origin, as well as those right-minded Canadians who are sensitive to racial slurs about any identifiable group. ...
The effect of his rhetorical attempt to skewer the political decision-makers was not, as it could have been, moderated so as not to skewer the compatriots of the slain teenagers. He thus undermined the legitimacy of his own argument ... This was made the moreso true by his repetition of the offensive statements without, at any time in the show, offering any mitigation which would have left the sarcastic element operational vis-à-vis the actual target but not vis-à-vis the unintended target. Moreover, he had the perfect opportunity to offer that mitigation or at least some moderation of his position in his response to the caller Ashouk, who, after all, had missed the irony and could have been assumed not to be the only such listener in that position.
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.
– 30 –
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 (###) ###-####.