AT&T To Musicians: Love It Or Leave It
Following all of the hubbub over AT&T snipping Pearl Jam’s brief Bush bash from its Lollapalooza broadcast, to which the communications conglomerate quickly ‘fessed up with a blame-shifting mea culpa, an e-mail was circulated to a number of news outlets earlier today that claims that this isn’t the first time the company has gotten an itchy bleeping finger when artists have brought up politics and the president:
However, an email sent this morning to Wired News, the Chicago Sun Times, the LA Times, and the Wall Street Journal alleges that AT&T censored the Flaming Lips and the John Butler Trio during previous webcasts:
“I read your article about this and it makes me so angry that AT&T say[s] this is a one time mistake.
“They did the same thing on the webcasts from Bonnaroo in June during the John Butler Trio show when he was talking about the lack of response from our government during Katrina, and also during the Flaming Lips show when the lead singer was talking about how much George Bush had screwed up. I was at both of those live shows and saw the webcasts later. The sound did not cut out at any other time – only when someone was talking about George Bush or the goverment in a negative way.
“It was not a mistake, it is full out censorship.”
If it’s true, and to be fair to AT&T this is all rumor at this point and neither of the shows are appaently archived for easy reference (Wired is asking for anyone with more info to chip in), then it makes the company’s earlier apology a trifle more suspect and a tad more disingenuous than it initially appeared. Who does the company have censors combing broadcasts for political rhetoric–and why?
