AT&T CENSORS PEARL JAM'S LOLLAPALOOZA SET BECAUSE A SONG MENTIONED BUSH
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CMJ is reporting that AT&T censored Pearl Jam's Lollapalooza set on Sunday. Maybe they figured no one would notice. I guess this has to be expected when one gets in bed with freedom's mortal enemy: corporations, which will always pimp for the status quo. The was an AT&T Blue Room live broadcast set up and an AT&T "content monitor" found "Daughter" too risque for Lollapalooza fans.
Here's a live version of the song:
Maybe they objected to Eddie quoting that subversive Neil Young! No, it wasn't that. According to the Pearl Jam website it was lines sung by Eddie: "George Bush, leave this world alone" and "George Bush find yourself another home" that offended them so. Pearl Jam doesn't seem too happy:
Most telecommunications companies oppose "net neutrality" and argue that the public can trust them not to censor..
Even the ex-head of AT&T, CEO Edward Whitacre, whose company sponsored our troubled webcast, stated just last March that fears his company and other big network providers would block traffic on their networks are overblown..
"Any provider that blocks access to content is inviting customers to find another provider." (Marguerite Reardon, Staff Writer, CNET News.com Published: March 21, 2006, 2:23 PM PST).
But what if there is only one provider from which to choose?
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.
What happened to us this weekend was a wake up call, and it's about something much bigger than the censorship of a rock band.
Too bad 2 decades of reactionary government have destroyed all the countervailing forces that could protect us against unbridled corporate power. Anyone think Hillary will change that? A little?
UPDATE: HERE'S WHAT OFFENDED AT&T
This is what AT&T did to Pearl Jam.
Labels: censorship, Pearl Jam
posted by DownWithTyranny @ 4:51 PM
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I dislike ATT MUCH more than Bush2, I feel somewhat sorry for Bush.
Try Earthlink, Comcast, whatever but don't write any more checks to ATT, it feels great. Earthlink ports your number over.
Damn .. I wonder what AT&T would have done if Pearl Jam had played Bu$hleaguer? They probably wouldn't have censored it because it would have gone right over their heads.
ummm, or perhaps it has something to do with the fact that AT&T is beholden to BushCo because they have committed felonies under the previous incarnation of FISA? And BushCo is set to fight for retroactive immunity for all the telcos that did this?
Not so much a conspiracy theory as simply pointing out that -- as we now know -- BushCo has been co-opting telcos to spy on Americans for the last 5+ years, in blatant violation of federal law (it was a felony), and therefore AT&T has a vested interest in protecting and supporting BushCo so that BushCo will protect and support AT&T if/when it becomes necessary.
In a word, no. In two words, hell no. But, it is like gas prices, we were so upset about over $3 a gallon that we think paying $2.70 is now a good deal. So compared to Bush anyone looks a lot better.
I wish Dennis Kucinich would get stretched on a rack and have plastic surgery so he can look like Kennedy or Edwards, but have his power.
Keep rocking in the Free World.
As opposed to...
Stop rocking in the Corporate World.
Teach, you have been here long enough to know that Dennis K has been saying the same thing for 8 years.
Who cares what he looks like?
The Internet does not belong to AT&T. As Pearl Jam says...
This Is Not For You!
“And you dare say it belongs to you…to you…
This is not for you
This is not for you
This is not for you
Oh, never was for you…fuck you…”
And watch out for Hands off the Internet. They are an industry front group and are already starting to spin this story in their favor - like this blog comment at the LA Times.
I posted on the Crooks and Liars post related to this post that AT&T even censored out the words "Let's get to the point/let's roll another joint" from the song "You Don't Know How It Feels" from Tom Petty's performance at Bonnaroo done on their "The Blue Room" last summer. I thought at the time, and noted how petulant and juvenile it seemed but of course this is more dangerous.
Instead, you hear the slurping sounds of an AT&T exec in kneepads blowing The Shrub, his way of thanking him for his fine work sliding the warrantless wiretapping legislation through, retroactively letting his company off the hook for all their previous illegal acts.
Dennis Kucinich is WAY hotter than a Kerry or Edwards, are you kidding? His amazing wife agrees I'm sure.
Check out this hot photo of the couple. :-)
http://www2.kucinich.us/node/934
dennis4president.com
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