[NYTr] AT&T censors criticism of Bush

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

sent by rick kissell

The Nation - Aug 10, 2007
http://www.thenation.com


AT&T Censors Criticism of Bush

by John Nichols

Telecommunications giant AT&T says no one should worry about their 
aggressive lobbying to eliminate net neutrality --- the first amendment 
of the internet that guarantees equality of access to all websites.

AT&T executives claim they would never interfere with web content.

When Americans hear this spin, they should hang up on AT&T.

The truth is that, within business circles, the company is already 
promoting its schemes for "shaping" the internet if net neutrality 
protections fall.

And a good sense of how the telecommunications corporation would like
to "shape" the world wide web can be gleaned from reports of how AT&T 
managed the live webcast of last weekend's Lollapalooza concert when it 
came time for Pearl Jam to perform.

The Seattle-based band has a long history of highlighting smart 
political statements --- about war and peace, protecting the
environment and promoting tolerance --- in its songs and in the
on-stage comments of lead singer Eddie Vedder.

But on Sunday, when Pearl Jam was performing the song "Daughter" during 
the Lollapalooza festival in Chicago, the band broke into a version of 
Pink Floyd's "Another Brick in the Wall." Reworking the lyrics of the 
classic rock song, Vedder sang, "George Bush, leave this world alone" 
and "George Bush, find yourself another home."

The lyrics that criticized Bush were muted in the webcast.

Coincidence? Not at all.

AT&T admits that the censorship occurred. The company describes the 
muting of Vedder's references to a president who appoints Federal 
Communications Commissioners --- and, thus, has a major role in
deciding whether AT&T gets what it wants --- as "a mistake by a webcast
vendor."

Then, in a nice Orwellian twist, the company declares, "We have
policies in place with respect to editing excessive profanity, but AT&T
does not censor performances."

In fact, "editing excessive profanity" is censorship.

And, of course, Vedder's lyrics about Bush, which were not profane, did 
in fact get censored.

Web-savvy Pearl Jam fans noted the silencing of the message and 
immediately contacted the band. Pearl Jam members released a statement 
on the censorship incident that declared, "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."

Pearl Jam's statement continued: "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's right. The censorship of Pearl Jam by AT&T serves as a 
reminder of what will be lost if net neutrality is eliminated and 
telecommunications corporations are free to decide which web sites are 
on "the information superhighway of the future" and which are on the 
gravel road of slow or impossible connections.

"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," says Jenny Toomey, the executive director of the Future of 
Music Coalition, which has been working to defend net neutrality. "What 
do you think they will do to protect their financial interests on the 
web when no one is looking?"

Tim Karr, of the Save the Internet coalition, adds that, "AT&T's
history of breaking trust with their customers includes: handing over
private phone records to the government; promising to deliver services
to underserved communities and then skipping town; and pledging never
to interfere with the free flow of information online while hatching 
plans... to build and deploy technology that will spy on user traffic."

"The moral of this story is put Net Neutrality permanently into law and 
never trust AT&T at their word," says Karr. "The company acts in bad 
faith toward the public interest and will do whatever it can to pad
it's bottom line --- including sacrificing its users freedom to choose
where they go, what they watch and whom they listen to online."

[John Nichols is a co-founder of Free Press and the co-author with 
Robert W. McChesney of "TRAGEDY & FARCE: How the American Media Sell 
Wars, Spin Elections, and Destroy Democracy" -- The New Press.]

© 2007 The Nation