AT&T will ensure its policy on webcast censoring is ‘more clearly...

“George Bush, leave this world alone,” and “George Bush, find yourself another home.” AT&T guidelines provide for removal of profanity, not political statements, the spokesman said. Davie Brown Entertainment, the contractor handling AT&T Blue Room webcast production, muted the lines sung by Eddie Vedder, he said. AT&T has talked with Davie Brown, which will continue to produce AT&T webcasts, he said. Davie Brown principal Adam Smith didn’t comment by our deadline. AT&T webcasts have censored political statements in a “handful of cases,” the spokesman said, saying political editing should not happen, and AT&T has moved to prevent it. Net neutrality groups were outraged. AT&T should tell consumers what its exact policies are, said Public Knowledge’s Art Brodsky. The Pearl Jam incident is “another brick in the wall for AT&T,” which previously hurt consumer trust by giving phone records to the National Security Agency and proposing a network-wide copyright filter, he said. The Pearl Jam episode is a “wake-up call” and a “sign of things to come if we let AT&T be a gate keeper of the Internet,” said a spokesman from SaveTheInternet.com. Calling censorship a gaffe or blaming vendors does not exculpate AT&T, he said, given that the Pearl Jam incident was not the first. “You put all the mistakes together and it starts to look like a pattern.”