USA Today reports that while in fact a handful of AT&T employees did bring cell phones to parties celebrating American Idol’s Kris Allen, even if there was voting going on it wouldn’t have made a difference in the outcome of the show.
The paper cites an AP report that says:
About 20 phones were brought to two separate parties in Arkansas, and two of those phones were capable of sending multiple votes by so-called “power texting,” a person familiar with the gatherings said. A second person, with knowledge of the voting results, said Allen won by a large enough margin that a handful of voters could not have swayed the outcome.
Both spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment on the voting process or the Arkansas parties.
Idol prohibits “power voting” by text or phone, and has internal safeguards against the practice.
In a joint statement, Fox and producer FremantleMedia said the results were “fair, accurate and verified” by an independent, third-party monitor to protect the integrity of the voting process. “In no way did any individuals unfairly influence the outcome of the competition.”
“Kris Allen is, without a doubt, the American Idol,” Fox and FremantleMedia said.
The article goes on to say that only two phones could “power text” and since those votes are not allowed, they didn’t count. The AT&T employees were invited to the event by Sonja Keith, who helped organize the party, because people had been having trouble voting and had questions. She said that the same resources were probably available to Lambert fans, adding, ” I don’t know that they were as organized as we were in terms of their support.”
And organized they were. The town, the college, the neighborhoods gathered all over for Idol viewing parties. That’s what happens in a small town.
Even Adam Lambert has said that he thought that a Kris Allen win might be possible due to the “Gokey factor” -the migration of church leader Danny Gokey’s votes to the more conservative Allen — than any kind of grassroots effort.
Which is what I’ve been saying since April. It doesn’t even have to be church people that were voting for Gokey, either. Danny Gokey’s style of music, his persona, etc was so different than Adam’s that it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to predict his fans would vote for Kris Allen.
So there you have it. There’s no conspiracy, it wasn’t a “gay/Christian” thing (although the church vote might have factored in a bit for Gokey fans). Both Lambert and Allen have moved on with their lives and are headed for hugely successful careers. In fact, for those Danny Gokey fans who’ve been crying since he was elminated from the show: he’s expressed an interest in appearing on “Dancing With The Stars,” which might be a good idea, since even producer Howard Benson, who has worked with Chris Daughtry and Kelly Clarkson, doesn’t think Danny Gokey has a future in the music industry. (Well, mainstream probably, but he’ll put out at least one Christian album. Although Chris Sligh, who befriended Gokey during the season, told USA Today, “In getting to be friends with Danny, I know he’s, at this point at least, not interested in CCM or gospel.” So many “Dancing With The Stars” is looking better._
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posted May 28, 2009 at 12:06 pm
This does not settle the controversy. Give me a break! I need to hear that AI is no lonegr allowing at&t to be a part of their show. I need evidence that this was not more widespread. Just because YOU say it is “settled”, does not mean it is so.
posted May 28, 2009 at 1:12 pm
Karan, are you serious? My guess is AT&T has a contract for a number of years, and until that’s up they’re a sponsor. How do you think a show like Idol stays on the air? Sponsors, like Coke and Ford and AT&T. They pay for all of the promotion.
Seriously, my guess is nothing will ever convince you, even knowing that Adam Lambert fans has websites telling fans how to power text, that only two phones brought to the Kris Allen viewing parties were capable of power texting, that Idol has measures in place to prevent any power texting votes from being counted, that an independent auditor verifies all of the results for every show …
Try this list of things to do now that Idol is over. Maybe it’ll help.
http://blog.beliefnet.com/gospelsoundcheck/2009/05/10-things-to-do-now-that-ameri.html
Joanne
host of the GS blog
posted May 31, 2009 at 3:28 am
I am trying to understand the logic here. On the one hand, AT&T and all companies invloved have admitted there are irregularities with a “few workers”, but the voting is still fair. HOW? When there is clearly a violation of their stated policies and regulations, you cannot ignore the violation and simply declare everything is still fair and OK because there is only a small number of votes being affected. They should publish the number of votes and filter out all the repeated votes coming from the same source or telephone numbers. Shame on them! AL has fast becoming a joke.