Well, don’t that beat all? The AT&T “Content Monitor” that was previewing Pearl Jam’s Lalapalooza webcast performance slipped and cut a scene from their performance. Wouldn’t ya know it? That moment when the magic finger slipped on the magic button was the part where Eddie Vedder was singing about George Bush:
Portions Censored From Pearl Jam Webcast || CMJ News Story
According to Pearl Jam’s website, portions of the band’s Sunday night set at Lollapalooza were missing from the AT&T Blue Room live webcast. Fans alerted the band to the missing material after the show. Reportedly absent from the webcast were segments of the band’s performance of “Daughter,” including the sung lines “George Bush, leave this world alone” and “George Bush find yourself another home.” After questioning AT&T about the incident, Lollapalooza was informed that material was indeed missing from the webcast, and that it was mistakenly cut by AT&T’s content monitor.
Hm. That’s a dilly of a coincidence, eh?
These are some scary times, folks. AT&T monitors our calls, our emails, what Internet web pages we go to and probably our viewing habits on TV, I’m sure. Congress capitulates and passes a law allowing them to do so without penalty. And now the corporation that brought you Fear and Loathing on the Telephone is making it’s own decisions as to what political speech is deemed acceptable use on the Internet. Oh, there’s no reason to think that the two-tiered Internet they so crave would be at all abused, that’s just crazy-talk!
{{ Seriously, people. Call your state representatives. }}
Of course, in this messed-up world of corporate media, who the hell knows what’s really going on? I mean, for all we know, Pearl Jam’s making a comeback at the behest of AT&T who gave those self-righteous douches a new cause to scream about. Of all bands for this to happen to, it just happens to be a has-been nineties band that inexplicably winds up on Lalapalooza? Sounds like a great moment for a content provider to have caught (or created) on their network.
Is there any reason to think that American democracy isn’t nearly doomed? Any reason at all to think that even when George Bush steps down in January, there will be any substantiative change that can pull us back from the brink of god-knows-what? Something preferably of more substance than Marty Kaplan’s “Magical Thinking?”
Technorati Tags: AT&T, Pearl Jam, Lalapalooza, Censorship, Net Neutrality, Spying, Fascism, Corporations, Corporate Cronyism
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