AT&T: It was a mistake??!!! Yeah, right!

Hey guys,

Just wanted to put my 2 cents in about what AT&T admits was "a mistake" by the monitor of the Lollapalooza webcast.

If you haven't heard, during the webcast of Pearl Jam's set this past weekend, AT&T took it upon itself, at least this "monitor" did, to censor Ed and the band from their opinions of George Bush. Now, if you guys know me, this is a big issue with me, censorship and this "president".

This is what you should've heard:


Now, I know what some of you might be thinking, "It was just a few seconds. It wasn't that bad." Well, I beg to differ. If we allow big corporations to censor what we say, in any way whatsoever, we are setting a precedence that could allow them to censor our phone calls, blogs or any other free speech protected by the constitution. If you noticed that as soon as they we called out by the band, AT&T immediately issued a statement.

"The editing of the Pearl Jam performance on Sunday night was a serious mistake made by a Webcast vendor and completely contrary to our policy," AT&T's statement said. "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."

I think AT&T needs to go further than just issuing a statement. I don't even think they apologized for it. They just say it isn't their policy to censor artists. They need to fire their vendor.

This isn't the first time the AT&T has done this. 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 saw the webcasts. 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.

I think it's time for us to let AT&T know that we won't tolerate this from them or any other big corporation. As of yesterday, I have decided to cancel my home phone and internet service I have with AT&T. I have had their service for over a year now so I won't incur any penalties. When asked by the rep. why I was canceling my service, I ,at first, said it was personal reasons. She kept on asking in different ways, why I was cancelling. After taking a deep breath, I told her I can not in good conscience continue giving my hard earned money to a company that believes in censorship. She quickly retorted that they don't. Then I told her the story about the show and that this wasn't a one-time incident. To her credit, she heard me out but said she knew nothing about what I was telling her and that it was news to her. I suggested she look into it for herself but that I had already made my decision to cancel. She went ahead and did just that for me and apologized for what "I felt" happened.

So, I challenge all you PJ fans and others to take a stand like I did. If you use AT&T, stop using them. They will get the message.

Peace!