It’s not often I get to write about my favorite band, Pearl Jam, in relation to a story that appears on TechMeme, but today that’s exactly what I get to do as it seems – at least from Pearl Jam’s point of view – that AT&T censored their Lollapalooza Webcast on Sunday night presumably because they included lyrics critical of President Bush. From Pearl Jam’s site:

During the performance of “Daughter” the following lyrics were sung to the tune of Pink Floyd’s “Another Brick in the Wall” but were cut from the webcast:

- “George Bush, leave this world alone.” (the second time it was sung); and

- “George Bush find yourself another home.”

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 sent a statement to GigaOm hoping to clear up the matter:

“The editing of the Pearl Jam performance on Sunday night was not intended, but rather a mistake by one of the webcast editors. 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.”

I fail to find the profanity in the lyrics about George Bush, unless AT&T considers any anti-Bush statements to be profane.

Regardless of what actually took place, it’s good to see Pearl Jam is still out there fighting the good fight. All of this brings back memories of their epic battle with Ticketmaster in the 1990s to try and eliminate the ridiculous service charges the company would charge to concert-goers. A fight which, unfortunately Pearl Jam ended up having to give some cessions to so that their fans could, you know, actually see them in concert without driving to the boonies for a non-Ticketmaster controlled venue.