US Corporate Censorship of Political Statements by Artists — Pearl Jam
August 11, 2007
If you monitor the art & entertainment industry closely you’ll see how careers are often destroyed simpy by denying access to broadcast channels and the opportunity to address the public in talk shows and current affairs programs. In America such censorship is emerging in a number of different ways, The Dixie Chicks’ statements about George Bush was but one example. The most recent example is to do with Pearl Jam and AT&T. What most don’t know about the Dixie Chick Fallout and subsequent censorship of their music from public radio is that one corporation owns most of those stations.It should give us all cause for grave concern when those who have access to the public ear have their message censored, and when Americans, who, by their own propaganda, should know how important the voice of dissent is in a democracy, rail against the fact of dissent, well, you know at that point that democracy is in serious trouble and that people who are living in a democracy have pretty much no idea of what it means to enjoy it, nor why freedom of speech is such an important principle.
American students are taught that freedom of speech is an important democratic right, but not one of them can tell you why freedom of speech is important. That’s a huge “oversight,” but exactly what one would do if one wanted to preserve the illusion of freedom while preventing the substance–the understanding–from actually occurring, so that people living in a free land would actually know what it means and act accordingly to decry the lack or crush of dissenting voices.
The fact of the matter is, once again, that it is the lone voices who speak truth that are pilloried, and later found to be speaking truth and doing us all a great public service. On the really important issues that affect the security of mankind, like the environment, war and economy, we have failed to recognize truth, and to apologize to those who we slighted or tacitly and passively allowed to be insulted.
It is high time that we started to examine our behavior as a civilization and culture when it comes to receiving the message of those who make discoveries that are inconvenient, but who have the character and integrity to communicate their observation for our benefit.
When we ignore those messages or allow others to marginalize those who cry wolf when there really is a wolfpack at the gate, well…we are the ones who are permitting ourselves to be fooled. It is up to us to get smart, and inculcate a voracious appetite for veracity; that means: create a hunger for truth, to those who get hung up on long v-words and my propensity to alliterate for effect and impact, while making every effort to advance literacy. We, the consumers of news, need to demand truth. We need to engender that demand for truth, demanding critical analysis and reason with supporting indepedently compiled evidence, provided and linked, and here is where the (terrifying) prospect of a democratic internet becomes important.
News, like anything else in a civilization such as that we find ourself in, is driven by market forces. There is a lesson for us all to learn, as a society: stop shooting the messengers and start listening, with a more discerning ear, to what they have to say. A public servant is not just a person in the paid service of a government as an administrator. Today, a public servant, and even a global public servant, can be found in the person of dedicated and committed individuals who are not in the pay of some manufacturer, or controlled voice.
Creating a hunger for truth, means first of all being able to identify truth. Part of what has been happening to cause decay in society is that there have been a lot of discussions about the relativity of truth itself, to such a degree that being able to ascertain truth has itself become a time-consuming and tiring chore. We are not, it would appear, so well-equipped to know the truth, as once we were.
There are plenty of stories, but spin, propaganda, and PR have done their work to throw our perception of truth into doubt, and that has damaged democracy and the veracity of the Fourth Estate (the media and journalists) to provide the service they once did. Technology is an aid to discerning truth, it doesn’t deliver it or verify it. Human judgment and intellectual ability must be employed to reason, and reason itself is and has been under tremendous assault, as Al Gore recently pointed out. He’s right. It is.
Most artists, and in particular Creative Artists, have no other agenda to push than the public good, as we still are part of the public and remember and cherish our roots, as this helps us to keep it real. Part of what makes us artists is having a strong moral compass and a very precious relationship between truth and our work, and the integrity to come to grips with problems and be vocal about them, exercising our rights to freely express, whenever and whatever we please, or consider to be important.
The fact of the matter is, right or wrong, it is a public service and a right to communicate, and therefore to censor is a violation of that right. The Bush administration is (we hope) coming to an ignominious end (though I’d prefer removal from office rather than an election result, as the latter has nothing to do with justice or democracy). The observation made by Pearl Jam are important ones to communicate, and using an iconic song to make that clear to an audience who admire Pearl Jam for who they are is also a vital and important part of being a civic individual who values liberty and freedom. The audience expect this from Pearl Jam, it is part of Pearl Jam’s brand and social contract with their audience. To censor this is unconscionable, but it most surely demonstrates the position of AT&T in the corporatocracy that governs the U.C.A., the United Corporations of America, where the states no longer have any power other than that granted by their corporate masters.
This is not apparently the first time AT&T have taken it upon themselves to censor others.
The answer to consolidated control of the media is to–almost–ignore them and move to more independent means of communication (not Murdoch-space). This is in fact why the Free Articulator has been brought into existence.
It is time to adjust the power of the corporatocracy, to restrain that power and remove the instruments that allow it to move unchecked in our civilization. The global reach and irresponsibility of these organizations is an affront to human decency, and to our future survival. These organizations are part of what is creating the decay of our culture and threatening our existence and their legal right to do this has got to be removed, once and for all. What can we do? Vote with our dollars, dump our shares (if we have any) and get involved in groups such as Democracy School.
The Free Articulator is in part dedicated to preserving the rights citizens enjoy in democratic societies that value freedom. As Creative Artists our ability to observe, create and express is intimately tied to this important freedom, and we will always support and defend unto death, the right of people to freely express their opinions in any public forum–we dishonor the fallen in two World Wars if we do not.
We consider any censorship an affront to freedom of expression and therefore an attack on individual liberty itself. We also consider such censorship to be an attack upon our business, the business of communicating as free, independent communicators who epitomize the right of freedom of expression, and thus ensure and demonstrate that that particular freedom is safe from tyrants, dictators, despots and fascists for every individual in a free society.
You can find out more about this at Pearl Jam’s site.
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[...] too long ago we commented on the fact that AT&T censored Pearl Jam. At the same time we mentioned Clear Channel censoring the Dixie Chicks, well now they’re at [...]