AT&T Admits Error In Pearl Jam Censorship

Band's Criticism Of President Bush Silenced In Webcast Of Lollapalooza Show

(AP)  Lyrics performed by Pearl Jam criticizing President Bush should not have been censored from a webcast by AT&T Inc., a company spokesman acknowledged Thursday.

AT&T, through its Blue Room entertainment site, offered a webcast of the band's headlining performance Sunday at Lollapalooza in Chicago. The event was shown with a brief delay so the company could bleep out excessive profanity or nudity.

But monitors hired by AT&T through a vendor went further and cut two lines from a song to the tune of Pink Floyd's "Another Brick in the Wall." One was "George Bush, leave this world alone" the second time it was sung, and the other was "George Bush find yourself another home," according to the band's Web site.

AT&T spokesman Michael Coe said that the silencing was a mistake and that the company was working with the vendor that produces the webcasts to avoid future misunderstandings. He said AT&T was working to secure the rights to post the entire song — part of a sing-along with the audience — on the Blue Room site.

Blue Room offers live concerts, sports interviews, video game advice and other entertainment content that requires a high-speed Internet connection. Although viewing the content is free, San Antonio-based AT&T uses the site as a way to promote its DSL broadband services.

Besides Pearl Jam's show, AT&T showed 21 other performances ranging from Pete Yorn to G. Love and Special Sauce during the three-day Lollapalooza music festival. Coe said no other complaints have been made about censoring.

Pearl Jam said in a posting on its Web site that in the future, it would work harder to ensure live broadcasts or webcasts are "free from arbitrary edits."

"If a company that is controlling a webcast is cutting out bits of our performance — not based on laws, but on their own preferences and interpretations — fans have little choice but to watch the censored version," they said.

The alternative rock band and Internet advocates were also using the incident to try to draw attention to the prospects of Internet service providers like AT&T deciding to give preferential treatment to content they favor or have deals with, leaving the rest on slower-moving Internet bandwidths.

Jenny Toomey, executive director of the Future of Music Coalition, said that although net neutrality wasn't being violated in this case, it still raises questions about whether AT&T and other service providers can be trusted not to hurt artists.

Internet speeds that depend only on the size of files, not the kind of content that's in them, is a democratizing force, she said.

"We've got to protect that, and artists get that," Toomey said.

AT&T and other providers would like the ability to charge more for transmitting certain kinds of data, like live video, faster or more reliably than other data but have insisted such premium services would help, not hurt, consumers.

Coe said, regardless, the issue of net neutrality is entirely separate from the mistake during the Pearl Jam show.

"This was our own Web site," he noted.

[my2centss]

You can do what CBS did(Don Imus) and not censor, or what AT&T did. Either choice and you are wrong.

[my2centss]

You can do what CBS did(Don Imus) and not censor, or what AT&T did. Either choice and you are wrong.

[bobnjersey]

[Maybe they should move to Iraq, hang out with the terrorists that slaughtered thousands only a few years ago. I am ashamed that I used to like Pearl Jam. I hope ATT DID censor them - it would encourage me to continue my service.]
[Posted by Revolted at 01:00 AM : Aug 11, 2007]

yes ... censorship and banishment to a foreign country ... now that's definitely something to be proud of.

[tucano2]

When the you have paid for the microphone you can pretty much say anything - Ronnie Regan

[keithle1]

Mistakes were made. Uh huh.

Not sure how many of you have Music Choice on your cable tv. Each channel plays music (not videos) in a different format: Classic Rock,
Rap, Blues, Jazz, Country, Classical, etc.
They give you the name of the band, song & album it came from.

When they play the Stones song title that's a word for a female dog, they show it as:
"B***H." You still hear Mick sing the word.
Pink Floyd's "Money"-you don't hear the
word for bull excrement. Dire Straits "Money For Nothing"-they bleep out the "f" word for homosexual gentleman.

[simpleguy234]

The First Amendment....Pearl Jam and the entire music industry should BAN AT&T from any future broadcast. Using their corporate superiority to "censor" things they dont agree with.. a HUGE shame on them and all this country stands for. Music has always been about freedom of speech, and if you dont agree with it, you dont have to listen..or for that matter agree with the lyrics. It is up to us as Americans to decide. The imposition of censorship like the Chinese in state run broadcasting seems like a fair comparison......

[brianbwb-2009]

Posted by Revolted,

You express satisfaction that a information service would presume to censor that which they (and you, in this case) don't like, or agree with?

You are more of a right wing extremist than you admit.

[brianbwb-2009]

Profanity, nudity, anti Bush sentiments expressed in song, it is art folks, Michaelangelo's statues, or the nudes of the great painting masters would not exist if the prudes had power in their day. The works of Dante and Shakespeare were considered profane in their day, but like true artists, the creators didn't care about what the prudes said or thought.

So what will be the great works of art from modern times for future generations, if the fascists have control over what you and I may say, draw, or sing? I'm afraid the Monkees won't do...

[revolted-2009]

I am neither a bible thumper (in fact, I am not religious at all) or a right-wing conservative. I am an American citizen who is outraged and disgusted by ignorant bands that choose to make ugly comments like the ones that Pearl Jam made. I am even more sickened by those who choose to support this egotistical, self-indulgent trash. Maybe they should move to Iraq, hang out with the terrorists that slaughtered thousands only a few years ago. I am ashamed that I used to like Pearl Jam. I hope ATT DID censor them - it would encourage me to continue my service.

[fascistusa]

The Land of the Fr---

Oh, Wait. Oopps. My mistake.

ZEITGEISTmovie.com

System of a Down is on break... after calling America "FASCIST".

Disturbed is nowhere to be found after remaking "Land of Confusion/Fascism".

The *** played on the Radio nowadays if HIGHLY CENSORED. New bands are NOT supported unless their music is bubble gum pop lyrics.

Mos Def/Eminem/Immortal Technique "Bin Laden". watch it on youtube.