AT&T Cuts Anti-Bush Lyrics from Webcast

AT&T is trying to quell criticism after monitors it hired cut two lines of anti-Bush lyrics from its webcast of a Pearl Jam concert in Chicago earlier this week.

The company said in a statement Thursday that the lyrics should not have been censored. The rock band was singing a cover of the Pink Floyd track "Another Brick in the Wall." Instead of the line "teacher, leave those kids alone," lead singer Eddie Vedder replaced it with his own lyrics.

In the first chorus, the line "George Bush, find yourself another home" was used, while in the second "George Bush, leave this world alone" was sung. Monitors apparently found these lines objectionable, and cut them from the webcast, which was on a slight delay.

Both the band and Internet advocates used the incident to promote the cause of net neutrality, which calls for laws that prohibit bandwidth owners from giving preferential treatment to content or media that benefits them.

"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," the band said in a statement on its Web site.

AT&T, however, insisted the edit was a mistake, and was taking steps to prevent it from happening again in the future. In addition, the company was looking into licensing the song to play it on Blue Room, its multimedia portal.