AT&T's webcast of Lollapalooza is making the news this week because Eddie Vedder's anti-Bush rant was censored during Pearl Jam's performance of "Daughter". Pearl Jam, my favourite non-Canadian band, always tags on another song at the end of "Daughter". On this night, they tagged on Pink Floyd's "Another Brick in the Wall". The censored lyrics were "George Bush, leave this world alone" and "George Bush, find yourself another home."
From Pearl Jam's web site:
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'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 is hitting the nail on the head with that comment. As big corporations swallow up smaller media and cow tow to political leaders there's an ever increasing danger of this kind of censorship becoming more prevalent. Here's the AT&T edit vs. the uncut version.
