Did AT&T Censor Pearl Jam?
The news is flying across the Internet: Lollapalooza sponsor AT&T may have censored Pearl Jam’s performance during the band’s "Blue Room" Live Lollapalooza Webcast. According to numerous reports, the telecom giant deleted non-obscene lyrics critical of President Bush.
The Blue Room is supposedly AT&T’s "groundbreaking online portal featuring exclusive musical content…." Internet users can watch Lollapalooza performances live via the portal.
According to Pearl Jam’s website, posted yesterday:
"When asked about the missing performance, AT&T informed Lollapalooza that portions of the show were in fact missing from the webcast, and that their content monitor had made a mistake in cutting them.
"During the performance of "Daughter" the following lyrics were sung to the tune of Pink Floyd’s "Another Brick in the Wall" but were cut from the webcast:
- "George Bush, leave this world alone." (the second time it was sung); and
- "George Bush find yourself another home."
This, of course, troubles us as artists but also as citizens concerned with the issue of censorship and the increasingly consolidated control of the media.
AT&T’s actions strike at the heart of the public’s concerns over the power that corporations have when it comes to determining what the public sees and hears through communications media.
Aspects of censorship, consolidation, and preferential treatment of the internet are now being debated under the umbrella of "NetNeutrality." Check out The Future of Music or Save the Internet for more information on this issue."
Important issues of NetNeutrality aside, I will report back here at some point about my latest marathon interaction with this non-responsive company when our telephone lines were transferred to SBC (after the company acquired AT&T and then adopted the AT&T name).
Yeah - SBC needed a new moniker after the horrendous customer service reputation they developed here in California. But adopting the AT&T name is rather like Lucifer changing his name to Satan and thinking this will solve his PR problems.
The old-SBC-now-the-new-AT&T (but the new boss is the same as the old boss) did respond, finally. But only after I insisted that the company shutter all of our accounts and kill all the phone lines. Some of these numbers have been attached to our family for close to twenty years. It’s ludicrous and I ask again: Why is the FCC AWOL?
Asked my exasperated husband: "Why is the FCC preoccupied with wardrobe malfunctions when there are millions of people getting ripped off, some on fixed incomes."
With this kind of customer service experience would we subscribe to AT&T’s U-verse? No way.
GooseGuy commented:
The FCC, or perhaps the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), who I believe actually have jurisdition over the issue of responsiveness and adherance to rate and regulatory guidelines. The CPUC is about as sleepy as the FCC, and even more toothless. We only have ONE phone company in these parts, now; FCC sez "competition" exists in the likes of Comcast who also offers dialtone, and a chorus of wanna-be Internet phone players vis-a-vis vonage, skype et. al. Different rules apply to all of those companies, and the CPUC has little influence over the likes of Skype, which is european. Nevertheless, they are supposed to be the watchdog, and they do in fact have the ability to yank AT&T's leash; we should wake them up and see if anyone is at home.
Meanwhile, on the censorship issue... it is the FCC who is very very very concerned with wardrobe malfunctions and certain four-letter words popular with the vice president of the united states, but which can result in 6-figure fines if inadvertently uttered over the "public" air. It seems pretty clear that the current and recent FCC administrations are bought paid for and owned by the Bush administration, so from that perspective their censorship of any criticism, however vague the above might be, would perhaps make sense. I like the fact that PJ (and now you) called them on it publicly; that is what will make the difference in this case -- just as it was the public, and organizations of citizens, that brought down that yahoo of a racist morning man recently -- you know I can't remember his name, but he wore a cowboy hat, you know who I mean, on about the nappy hair and all. The government never got involved in that one, but it turned into a big deal and the broadcasting company went away with its' tail between its' legs....