Ottawa, August 30, 1999 – The Canadian Broadcast Standards Council (CBSC) today released two new decisions concerning the Howard Stern Show broadcast in edited form on CILQ-FM in Toronto. The first decision related to a complaint about Stern’s use of the words “retard” and “retarded” in an argument with a member of his production staff over the preparation, or lack thereof, for the day’s show.
The Ontario Regional Council considered the complaint under the human rights provision of the Canadian Association of Broadcaster’s (CAB) Code of Ethics. It found no breach in this case. While the Council indicated that “the terms are generalizations which carry a negative connotation” and “[a]s such, they risk falling afoul of the CAB Code of Ethics”, it found that in this case the comment
was directed at an individual and does not attribute negative stereotypical characteristics to a defined minority group in such a manner as to amount to a breach of the human rights provision of the Code. Moreover, the references stand alone without any additional characterisation of the referenced group elsewhere in that show. The remarks did not mock or make fun of members of the handicapped group generically but rather attributed diminished mental capacity to an unchallenged individual. It thus misses on this occasion that abusively discriminatory nature which brands offending comments which are found to be in breach of the Code.
The Council indicated, however, that it found itself “very much on the edge regarding the statements of the host” but it noted that:
As it has stated in past decisions, the CBSC takes great care to err on the side of freedom of speech, even in cases involving allegations of discriminatory comment. That being said, the Council wishes to underline that its conclusion does not support in any way such tasteless commentary. On this occasion, it is an issue of taste alone where, in the Council’s view, the sanction is that of the listener via the on/off switch. The Council does not intervene in such instances.
In the second decision released today, the Ontario Regional Council found that Stern’s generalized and repeated comment that “Poles hate Jews” breached the human rights provision of the CAB Code of Ethics. It stated:
In the view of the Council, this accusation of an entire people that they hate any other national group, contrary to generally accepted principles, is likely to bring opprobrium on the “haters” rather than the “hated”. It is in this sense abusively discriminatory vis-à-vis persons of Polish nationality and in breach of Article 2 of the CAB Code of Ethics.
Canada’s private broadcasters have themselves created industry standards in the form of Codes on ethics, gender portrayal and television violence by which they expect the members of their profession will abide. In 1990, they also created the CBSC, which is the self-regulatory body with the responsibility of administering those professional broadcast Codes, as well as the Code dealing with journalistic practices first created by the Radio Television News Directors Association of Canada (RTNDA) in 1970. 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 (###) ###-####.