Hmmn don't remember that being a huge deal. I know they released an "edited cut" striking the lyrics.

Which wouldn't have indicated controversy to you?  Artists generally don't like to alter their songs after they've been done unless there is some type of pressure to do so.  Or they're related to George Lucas.

And if you read my post I said he overheard some guys at an
Appliance shop come up with those lines.

So sorry.  Merely pointing it out again.

Down here in Texas boy, we did not have radio stations boycotting, no picketing in the streets. I think you may be referring to the reaction in Maine or San Francisco.  Watch who you're calling boy.  And I was in the rural midwest at the time, where gay-bashing was almost a varsity sport.  We knew about it.  Not sure what Maine or San Francisco have to do with it either (except, I guess, that SF is full of those "F-words").  Maybe I watched too much of that liberal MTV and read too much of that liberal Rolling Stone in the '80s.  That would explain why I voted for Bush 41....

The point is the outcry was marginal.

Marginal to you perhaps.  Knopfler still has to answer questions about it.

Today it would headline for 3 days.

Did the Coulter thing even headline for 3 days?  I don't know, I rarely read the paper.
Page 1. Mark Knopfler uses the word FAG
Page 4: 3 Americans contractors beheaded while working  in Iraq..
I'll make you a deal.  You find me a front section from a major newspaper in the top 15 metro areas of the US where a story about American beheadings gets bumped from the front page because of a PC story, and I'll personally fly to Austin and eat one of my shoes in front of you.  The liberal media isn't that liberal.