“George Bush Leave This World Alone”: Pearl Jam censored by AT&T
The video was taken a few days ago at the Lollapalooza Festival in Chicago, with Eddie Vedder extending “Daughter” with part of “Another Brick in the Wall” from Pink Floyd, during which the following lines were sung: “George Bush leave this world alone. George Bush leave this world alone. George Bush find yourself another home.”
Well guess what, if you were watching the show on the “Blue Room” Live Webcast you wouldn’t have heard those lines because AT&T simply cut it out of the performance (the first line did seem to escape the censor though).
AT&T claims that “their content monitor had made a mistake”. What mistake? Like the mistake where you collaborated with the NSA in its massive spying program to wiretap and data-mine the communications of your customers?
Pearl Jam writes on their website:
“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.
The complete version of “Daughter” from the Lollapalooza performance will be posted here soon for any of you who missed it. We apologize to our fans who were watching the webcast and got shortchanged. In the future, we will work even harder to ensure that our live broadcasts or webcasts are free from arbitrary edits.
If you have examples of AT&T censoring artist performances around political content, it’s a good thing for everyone to know about. Feel free to post examples on the official Pearl Jam Message Pit”
“The admitted censoring of a Pearl Jam performance is just one more reason why content should be protected against the actions of a company looking out for itself, rather than for consumers and the free flow of information over the Internet,” said Gigi Sohn, president of Public Knowledge. “We join Pearl Jam in condemning censorship and in promoting Internet Freedom. We hope the FCC and Congress take note.”
Added Craig Aaron, communications director for Free Press, “Every time something is censored or blocked it’s a ‘mistake’ or a ‘glitch.’ And that could well be the case. But of course there’s no way for users to know. That’s exactly how it will be on the non-neutral Internet and closed wireless networks, where AT&T will be a gatekeeper deciding what you see and when you see it.”
When asked about the Net neutrality arguments, Nels of AT&T reiterated that what happened in Chicago was simply a mistake.
May I suggest Eddie change his lyrics to:
George Bush leave this world alone.
AT&T leave the Internet alone.
George Bush find yourself another home.
AT&T get out of our home.
Here’s Daughter by Pearl Jam performed at the Lollapalooza Festival in its entirety…I think I’m going to make this a Pearl Jam listening weekend…
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