AT&T censored portions of Pearl Jam’s live concert cybercast on Sunday.
Pearl Jam performed a portion of Pink Floyd’s “Another Brick in the Wall,” during which frontman Eddie Vedder sang, “George Bush, leave this world alone” and “George Bush, find yourself another home.” Those lyrics were missing from the broadcast.
Vedder also ranted against oil giant BP during the set, and later, brought a disabled Iraq War veteran onstage to call for an end to the conflict. Neither of these segments were edited.
AT&T attributed the bleeping to “a mistake by a Webcast vendor”. According to AT&T they do not censor performances, but they do consider editing excessive profanity.
The company also said it was “working with the band to post the song in its entirety,” a sentiment echoed by Pearl Jam on its official Web site (http://www.pearljam.com).
The incident has garnered hundreds of posts on Pearl Jam’s web forum as well as a response from the Future of Music Coalition, a strong advocate for “net neutrality” laws that ensure free speech online.
Lastly, Pearl Jam rants against the issue of censorship and the increasingly consolidated control of the media….
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