Coincidence? Accidental Muting? Devine Intervention? You Be the Judge

There is no reason to suspect that AT&T plans to ignore anyone’s first amendment rights just because they lobby to eliminate net neutrality. You can just take their word for that and go on with life as usual.

And while you are going on with life as usual, you might want to believe AT&T’s claim that they accidentally muted the negative references to Bush in their Blue Room web cast of Pearl Jam’s performance at the Lollapalooza festival in Chicago. Someone accidentally muted only those few words.

AT&T does not deny that the words, “George Bush, leave this world alone” and “George Bush, find yourself another home,” were censored. They claim it was a mistake, made by Davey Brown Entertainment, the company hired to edit excessive profanity or wardrobe malfunctions.

Adam Smith, Davey Brown Entertainment executive, accepted responsibility for the company’s mistake. (My apology to those who were holding out for divine intervention.) Nicole Vandenberg, spokeswoman for Pearl Jam says the group is not satisfied. I’m with them. I share Nicole’s opinion that it is unlikely the editor mistook the edited word for profanity.

I consider myself exceptionally well versed in profanity and can’t think of any profane words that rhyme with or sound like any of these: “George Bush, leave this world alone,” and “George Bush, find yourself another home.” Please let me know if I have overlooked profane words, or if our society adopted a few of these as profane when I wasn’t paying attention.

Pearl Jam issues this statement: “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." And, “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."

Tim Karr, of the Save the Internet coalition reports several previous incidents in which AT&T appears to have acted in bad faith toward public interest. That concerns me enough that I want to learn more about this situation and follow it closely.

I hope anyone who has more information will share it here.