Censoring
Pearl Jam:
A Call Of Save The Internet
By Joshua Frank
19 August, 2007
Countercurrents.org
Last
week Seattle based Pearl Jam accused AT&T of censoring lead singer
Eddie Vedder during a live webcast of the band's Lollapalooza show on
August 5, which was provided online as part of AT&T's "Blue
Room" concert series. Vedder, performing a cover of Pink Floyd's
"Another Brick in the Wall", included the following substitute
lyrics that he repeated a number of times:
"George Bush, leave
this world alone."
"George Bush find yourself another home."
Fans who tuned in to the
Pearl Jam performance didn't hear all of Vedder's lyrics, as the sound
cut out after the front man sang the first line the first time around.
In a statement from the band on their official website Pearl Jam condemned
AT&T for censoring Vedder's politically charged message:
"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 ...
"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."
AT&T denied axing Vedder's
lyrics and instead laid blame on a third-party vendor:
"The editing of the
Pearl Jam performance on Sunday night was not intended, but rather a
mistake by a webcast vendor and contrary to our policy. We have policies
in place with respect to editing excessive profanity, but AT&T does
not edit or censor performances. We have that policy in place because
the blue room is not age-restricted.
"We regret the mistake
and are trying to work with the band to post the song in its entirety."
Despite AT&T's claim
that they do not "edit or censor performances", the incident
with Pearl Jam is a clear indication of what could happen if web neutrality
laws are not passed by Congress. The proponents of Net Neutrality want
to protect the internet and keep it in the hands of individuals, not
corporations. The Bad Guys in this profit motivated game want to control
the web and put it in the hands of big telecommunication corporations
like AT&T. Now, it's not that black and white of an issue, but for
the most part the Bad Guys are looking to gain more, while the Good
Guys (Google, Amazon.com, who will continue to prosper by a deregulated
internet) want to protect what they already have.
Right now the debate is heating
up with a vote likely to come down in the near future over the future
of the net. A lot of elected representatives have not come out one way
or another on this important issue. In the days ahead if we abandon
Net Neutrality and a telecom bigwig, shareholders, or a Board of Directors
decide websites like this one aren't worth putting on his
company's search engine, or provider package, it could be lost.
The telecom giants very well
could decide what is and what isn't available to be viewed on the internet
and could censor content front Pearl Jam or anyone else anytime they
please. They could also price the little guys out of the market. They
want to be Wal-Mart of the web. They want to control the content and
pick what we can see, read or listen to.
There is quite an underhanded
campaign going on by Net Neutrality opponents called "Hands off
the Internet" who claim to want to protect the internet from regulators
and Big Government. In the past year they have even run deceptive ads
on blogs and other websites in hopes of pulling internet readers in
to their camp. Some of the big names behind these cunning ploys include
AT&T, BellSouth, and Verizon.
Co-chair of this group is
the ex-spokesman for President Bill Clinton and other Democrats, Mike
McCurry who writes an occasional column at the Huffington Post. McCurry
claims Net Neutrality will kill the internet.
Fact is Net Neutrality is
what has gotten us this far. Yet McCurry writes, "The Internet
is not a free public good. It is a bunch of wires and switches and connections
and pipes and it is creaky. You all worship at Vince Cerf who has a
clear financial interest in the outcome of this debate but you immediately
castigate all of us who disagree and impugn our motives. I get paid
a reasonable but small sum to argue what I believe."
So how much does this guy
get paid? Well, not sure how much the big telecom giants are dolling
out, but McCurry charges $10,000 and up per speaking gig, so it's likely
he's bankrolled by the telecommunications industry. Hands off the Internet
wants to destroy the web just like the radio goliaths have killed the
airwaves.
When you turn on your TV
there aren't thousands of channels at your disposal. That's because
you have to pay for those channels, they aren't free -- even though
you supposedly own the airwaves. The same thing could happen to the
internet if guys like McCurry have their way. You'd have to pay for
access to the web and each carrier would have much different ideas about
what the "web" is. There would be different packages and different
sites available per package. Much like cable vs. DirectTV. It would
radically change the way the web functions and in the process it would
likely leave out alternative blogs and news sites -- as they would have
to pony up big bucks to have access to consumers. Even if they did,
they might not make the cut. Somebody else could decide if it's a site
worth your time or interest.
The internet is a work in
progress, spearheaded by innovative and creative people, not big corporations
like the censor-happy AT&T. Let's protect it.
Joshua Frank
is co-editor of Dissident Voice and author of Left Out! How Liberals
Helped Reelect George W. Bush (Common Courage Press, 2005), and along
with Jeffrey St. Clair, the editor of the forthcoming Red State Rebels,
to be published by AK Press in July 2008.
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