Brown: Pearl Jam story stirs several spins on fact

April 12, 2003

pictureSome Pearl Jam fans have a theory. It goes like this:

• The Rocky Mountain News did a huge, complimentary cover story on Pearl Jam, promoting its music and its April 1 concert.

• The News then went to the concert and wrote a glowing review about how great it was.

• Then the News decided: OK, enough of that. Let's get 'em!

According to this theory, we'd run a trumped-up story about people protesting singer Eddie Vedder's actions with a George Bush mask.

We waited in the parking lot and culled through the crowd trying to find someone to say something bad about him. It worked a little bit, but in the end we just made the rest up, hoping to bring the band down.

Seriously.

In the deluge of e-mail we received and on Internet chat boards in the wake of our story about fans protesting Vedder, people are actually saying that stuff. There has been so much misinformation about the story that it's worth explaining how and why it wound up in print.

The first two parts of the theory are true. The News ran a long interview with Jeff Ament before the show. And from the concert, we filed a glowing review (A-).

After filing the review, I left the press box and headed back to my seat. On the way, I saw people leaving, angrily complaining about what had just happened. Some fans recognized me and came over. "Did you see what he just did?"

Actually, not really; the press box is high above the seats. I saw a sparkling jacket, I saw a mask, but didn't get the nuances of exactly what Vedder had done. During the song Bushleaguer, the fans said, he impaled the Bush mask on a mike stand, and then stabbed it into the floor and stomped on it.

"You should write about that!" the fans said.

No. To write a story at that point required talking to more people, finding out exactly what happened. The next morning, voice mails were waiting on my work phone from more fans complaining about what had happened.

After talking to people in different parts of the building and talking to protesters, I estimated that perhaps 60 to 75 people had left - about one-half of one percent of the 12,000 people at the show.

Is that a story? Is that significant?

Finally my editor asked: "When was the last time you saw this many people leave a concert purely for political reasons?"

The answer: Never.

Out of more than 1,000 concerts, I've never seen anyone leave because of the political words or actions of the person they paid money to see.

So we decided to tell what happened as precisely as we could, quote Vedder at length, quote those who were upset, and let readers decide. We bought and downloaded the concert from Pearl Jam's Web site to accurately quote Vedder.

We wrote a 599-word news story. In it, 142 words quoted protesters unhappy with Vedder's actions. And 164 words were Vedder's, including his support of U.S. troops. The story twice noted that people cheered him; it once noted that some people booed. It was buried at the bottom of page 53A of the paper.

On the Internet, however, everything is front-page news. Many fans were introduced to the Rocky Mountain News through a link to the story from the Drudge Report Web site.

And many people read whatever they wanted to into the story. Many Pearl Jam fans were furious that the band was "attacked." Many right-wing publications picked up on it as treasonous speech.

The News even was accused of stifling Vedder's right to free speech - even as we were spreading that speech, with quotes about his opposition to the war and his support for the men and women fighting overseas.

We stifled his free speech by quoting him as saying: "I don't know if you've heard about this thing called freedom of speech, man. It's worth thinking about because it's going away" and "Let's hope for the best and speak our opinions."

Other fan reactions:

• It was just the normal fans leaving that we counted as protesters: I think I can tell the difference between someone storming out of the concert complaining and someone hurrying out to get the babysitter home on time.

• The complaining fans went to the show to cause trouble: Yeah, these people bought tickets months ago in the hopes that by showtime, war would break out, Vedder would impale a mask, and that they'd meet a reporter.

• Because we quoted only two fans by name, only two fans protested: We quoted enough fans to make their views clear - and as noted above, quoted Vedder more. Had we quoted dozens of fans, I'm sure we'd be accused of piling on too many quotes.

Then the band released a statement, noting that most of the crowd stayed at the show (well, obviously). The News was just after a flashy headline, they said, and disingenuously added: "you'll note the writer doesn't mention this in his review of the show from the day prior."

Not true. The review noted the boos directed toward the antiwar statements by openers Sleater/Kinney, and mentioned another fan telling Vedder to "shut up" during one of his antiwar talks. The review also noted that the band was still playing at deadline; the Bushleaguer incident hadn't happened yet.

The statement went on to call the reporting inaccurate, without citing any inaccuracies. It also said that "Ed's talk from the stage centered on the importance of freedom of speech and the importance of supporting our soldiers" - the very points quoted at length in the News article.Some fans thought it was "cool" that the band mentioned me and the News by name. Not so cool, actually - as I noted in my interview with Ament, Pearl Jam is a band in a unique position to forge a new path, as it is still wildly popular and now a free agent in the rock world. There'll be much reporting to do on their future activities and future music, and I have to assume I won't be part of that when it comes to future interviews.

That's a big drawback for myself and the News, but given the circumstances, it couldn't have gone any other way.

It happened. We reported it fairly. That's what a newspaper does.

Mark Brown is the popular music critic. (303) 892-2674 or via e-mail at Brownm@RockyMountain News.com