PEARL JAM Performance 'Mistakenly' Censored By AT&T

The Pulse of Radio (formerly Launch Radio Networks) reports: A portion of PEARL JAM's performance at Lollapalooza in Chicago on Sunday night (August 5) was omitted from AT&T's online webcast of the event. The band was first alerted to the deletion by fans watching the show at the AT&T "Blue Room" site. The missing portions of the show occurred during the band's performance of the song "Daughter", in which it integrated a segment of PINK FLOYD's "Another Brick in the Wall" as frontman Eddie Vedder sang the alternate lyrics, "George Bush, leave this world alone" and "George Bush, find yourself another home."

The anti-Bush lyrics were reportedly the only ones missing from the webcast. A spokesperson for the company that produced the webcast for AT&T could not explain why the only edits were the anti-Bush statements.

In a statement at its web site, PEARL JAM said in part, "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. 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 band promised that the complete version of "Daughter" would be posted at its web site soon.

AT&T blamed the omission on a mistake by a "content monitor" who was overseeing the broadcast for obscene language. The company claimed that it too would replace the missing lyrics.

A spokesperson for PEARL JAM told MTV.com, "I think the bigger question here is this: What is AT&T doing to ensure that 'mistakes' like this don't happen in the future?... We're talking about them editing out content in a song that referenced the president. I'm curious as to why this content monitor thought that might concern them?"

AT&T has also lobbied against the hotly debated issue of net neutrality, which ensures free, open and equal Internet access for all content providers without any restrictions. AT&T is one of several major corporations that wants to consolidate access and has claimed it won't censor or block any content.

The company has also drawn fire for cooperating with the Bush Administration's mining of U.S. citizens'phone call and email records, allegedly as part of the so-called "war on terror."

Future of Music Coalition head Jenny Toomey told Billboard.com that this incident is an example of why net neutrality is important, explaining, "This event shows that companies like AT&T will risk the appearance of censorship by turning off the sound on a webcast that's being viewed by thousands of people, just because it works counter to their financial interests."