AT&T moves from carrier to censor

A degree of self-censorship on the part of broadcasters is now usual in the US following Janet Jackson's unfortunate "wardrobe malfunction" that happened during her duet with Justin Timberlake as the pair "entertained" the crowd during half-time at the Superbowl a couple of years ago.

As the spot was also beamed live into tens of millions of US homes, viewers were startled, and, a little later, outraged, to see Ms. Jackson flash one of her breasts at the nation as her clothing somehow fell apart mid-act.

Since them it has become routine for broadcasters of live events to build in a short electronic delay to allow themselves time to bleep out any swearing or displays of sexual excess. They do this because otherwise they could find themselves facing huge fines and perhaps even closure as, in a massive over-reaction to an adolescent prank designed to provoke a response, the US authorities introduced swingeing prospective penalties that will be imposed on broadcasters should such a terrible event ever happen again.

Yesterday as condemnation of the censorship grew, AT&T finally broke its silence and admitted that the lyrics of a song criticising US President George W Bush were cut from Pearl Jam's gig at Lollapalooza in Chicago on Sunday last that was shown on AT&T's Blue Room entertainment site.

Pearl Jam were doing a singalong number to the tune of Pink Floyd's "Another Brick in the Wall" and, in the second chorus, the band had altered the lyrics to " George Bush, leave this world alone", and "George Bush, find yourself another home." Hardly Shakespeare, I'm sure you'll agree but worthy of censorship in the land where the right to freedom of speech and expression is enshrined in the Constitution? I think not.

At the time of the webcast AT&T said nothing about the cutting of the lyrics and only, reluctantly, admitted it had happened when Pearl Jam fans contacted the band via its own website to complain and inform them of what had happened. They also posted the song as cut by AT&T and as it was really sung at the time.

AT&T kept quiet for as long as it could and then, in a classic example of passing the buck, immediately blamed its subcontrator, the company's so-called "content monitor" – as lizardlike and slippery a nom de plume for a censor (because that's what a "content monitor" actually is) as you will find anywhere on the planet including Burma, Saudi Arabia and Zimbabwe.

In a statement , an AT&T mouthpiece, Michael Coe, said, "Those lyrics in no way, shape or form, are something that should have been edited. This was a major mistake by a webcast vendor", and went on to say that the company it had hired to manage the cybershow had overstepped its authority.

Frankly, I for one simply don't believe it. Someone, somewhere in AT&T at some time decided that the company has the right to act as censor. This is hugely dangerous. It is about much, much more than cutting a few words from a song being sung by  a rock group.