AT&T May Have Censored Bands Political Speech In The Past

[Nomad559]

http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/agendas/att-may-have-censored-bands-political-speech-in-the-past-288236.php

While AT&T claimed to be just as outraged as we were over their censoring of Pearl Jam's anti-Bush lyrics during their Lollapallooza stream, they might not be being all that honest. They claim that it was a one-time mistake made by an outsourced company. Really? According to Wired's Listening Post, concerts streamed on the Blue Room by The Flaming Lips and the John Butler Trio have also been censored for political reasons. If true, this action coupled with past allegations aimed at AT&T suggests an unnerving pro-Bush political agenda from one of America's biggest telecoms.

If confirmed, this is a really unsettling pattern. While bleeping out curses is their prerogative, censoring artists' political speech is not something that should be happening. AT&T wants to paint the response to this as reactionary and totally unrelated to prior stories of them spying on people for the NSA and RIAA/MPAA, but in my eyes this all falls under the same overreaching umbrella. We've asked AT&T to comment on this, and will let you know if and when we hear back from them.

[aquart]

1. Caught in a lie.

Said they'd never done it before and they do it regularly. LIARS.

[MasonJar]

2. AT&T and honest do not belong in the same sentence: oxymoron.