On Aug. 5, during a live concert webcast of the Lollapalooza festival in Chicago, Pearl Jam had a portion of lyrics criticizing President Bush censored by AT&T. The censoring occurred during a performance of “Daughter,” which segued into a cover of Pink Floyd’s “Another Brick In The Wall”. The lyrics were altered to, “George Bush, leave this world alone” and “George Bush, find yourself another home.” Pearl Jam was later informed by fans that portions of their performance were missing during AT&T’s Webcast.

Pearl Jam made the following statement on their website:

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

Aspects of censorship, consolidation, and preferential treatment of the internet are now being debated under the umbrella of “NetNeutrality.” Check out The Future of Music or Save the Internet for more information on this issue….

…If a company that is controlling a webcast is cutting out bits of our performance -not based on laws, but on their own preferences and interpretations - fans have little choice but to watch the censored version.

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 posted their own statement on the web, claiming that “the editing of the Pearl Jam performance on Sunday night was a major mistake by a Webcast vendor, ” and that it was contrary to their policy. On Thursday, Pearl Jam posted the edited and unedited versions of the performance on their own website (video above).

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