» My Eyes! Scandals on American Idol Options

[keri1971]

I don't think the problem here is power texting. Every one of those contestants had at least one person power texting for them. The issue should be is it a conflict of interest for AT&T, one of if not the biggest sponsor of AI, to allow employees/representives to be involved in the voting of one and only one contestant. That doesn't sound right.

That's the problem I have with it, too.

[tamens]

Wasn't there a lot of discussion about 100,000,000 votes were cast and 38,000,000 of them were from Arkansas?

I don't think a re-coronation is called for, but if those numbers are true, then who is to say that text voting is cool or should be counted the same as phone votes? I know I don't have AT&T and i couldn't get through for 2 hours calling any of the three numbers for Adam.

[TiffanyNichelle]

Wasn't there a lot of discussion about 100,000,000 votes were cast and 38,000,000 of them were from Arkansas?

That turned out to be not true.

I've always heard (via the media) that the majority of Adam fans were of the texting age and that Kris's weren't so, an argument that never made much sense to me.

[texas toast]

I read power texting instructions posted on two separate Adam Lambert fansites. His fans had the information available to them. This "scandal" is much ado about nothing.

[bossybitch]

Though I hope that this does blow up and further, the AT&T involvement does concern me. The free texting on those 80 phones is the biggy. Even if Adam fans know how to powertext, they would likely be limited in their voting by the cost.

Eighty phones may not seem like a lot but.....

80 phones X 10 votes/text X 1 text/15 seconds (conservatively) X 4 hours = 768,000 votes!!!

[murly]

I don't think the problem here is power texting. Every one of those contestants had at least one person power texting for them. The issue should be is it a conflict of interest for AT&T, one of if not the biggest sponsor of AI, to allow employees/representives to be involved in the voting of one and only one contestant. That doesn't sound right.

Bingo. The problem is not cheating by ordinary folks who figured out how to cheat. The problem is the involvement of AT&T. Remember the quiz show scandals of the '50s, which resulted in an investigation by Congress. Hearings were held and a law was passed which prohibited the fixing of game shows and any other form of contest. No one went to jail for the game show rigging, because it wasn't illegal at the time it was done, but it is illegal now. This is a bonafide scandal.

[jcin617]

FYI, this has attacted enough attention that the totally unscientific daily poll on CNN's home page is "Should shows like 'American Idol' go to a 'one person-one vote' format?" "Yes" is leading the way with 87% of the vote at the moment.

This post has been edited by jcin617: May 27, 2009 @ 1:53 pm.

[dws1982]

Remember the quiz show scandals of the '50s, which resulted in an investigation by Congress. Hearings were held and a law was passed which prohibited the fixing of game shows and any other form of contest. No one went to jail for the game show rigging, because it wasn't illegal at the time it was done, but it is illegal now. This is a bonafide scandal.

It is important to remember that Idol is not a game show--it is registered with the FCC as a reality show--and is not subject to the same regulations that game shows are. That's how they get away with having things like the infamous "Clause" in the closing credits, showing that they reserve the rights to discard certain votes that may have come from power-voting systems, and so on.

I'm still not convinced this is a major issue unless it can be shown that a statistically significant amount of votes came out of this and that it was enough to potentially turn the competition Kris's way. Based on what Ryan said top three night (1 million votes between the top two), and considering where a big chunk of Danny's votes were likely to go, I'm not sure that TextGate made much of a difference. Sure, 750,000+ votes could've been registered, but that's assuming everyone worked it right every time, that every phone was engaged the entire four hours, and a lot of other variables.

This post has been edited by dws1982: May 27, 2009 @ 1:56 pm.

[murly]

It is important to remember that Idol is not a game show--it is registered with the FCC as a reality show--and is not subject to the same regulations that game shows are. That's how they get away with having things like the infamous "Clause" in the closing credits, showing that they reserve the rights to discard certain votes that may have come from power-voting systems, and so on.

Well, the law that was passed by Congress following the game show scandal includes "any other form of contest," which I think would certainly apply to American Idol.

[bm232]

I don't think the problem here is power texting. Every one of those contestants had at least one person power texting for them. The issue should be is it a conflict of interest for AT&T, one of if not the biggest sponsor of AI, to allow employees/representives to be involved in the voting of one and only one contestant. That doesn't sound right.

If this were indeed the case, then it would not be right. But where is the proof that this is what happened?

It's a classic journalistic tactic. Writing, "There are rumors circulating that..." or "Some reports claim that..." automatically gives weight to said "rumors" or "reports," without anything to substantiate them.

The NY Times writer only says that similar things "appear" not to have happened at Adam Lambert watch parties. Well, since he presumably didn't attend any of those watch parties, what's to prevent him from saying that? Had he actually investigated the issue and found this to be the case, then I am sure that he would have given proof, because it would only strengthen his point. Therefore, I conclude that he did *not* do such research and is using evasive language to try and dupe his readers into believing that there was a scandal. It's lazy and irresponsible reporting.

As MJ points out in a recent blog post, AT&T reps have been going to watch parties for years, showing fans how to vote. They did the same thing for Elliott Yamin and Taylor Hicks in Season 5.

Adam and Kris both had visits to AT&T stores in their hometown visits--we saw them in the video packages on the results show. This is likely a continuation of the same thing, to net more profits and customers for AT&T. It's part of their deal for sponsoring the show.

Anyone who has read the original NY Times article carefully should be able to see that the journalist is misrepresenting the facts to try and get a good story. But now that the headline is spreading through the press, few people are bothering to check up on the actual facts. It totally sucks.

This post has been edited by bm232: May 27, 2009 @ 3:09 pm.

[kuromaku]

I think what mostly sucks about the entire thing is that it isn't "American" Idol - it's "AT&T" Idol.

[ari333]

kuromakuI think what mostly sucks about the entire thing is that it isn't "American" Idol - it's "AT&T" Idol.

THIS. Yes, and additionally, as far as the article goes that mentions the watch party etc for Elliot back in Season 5, I can't recall if there were text votes used then. Also if AI did accept text votes, I can't recall if it were it customary to charge customers per text at that time. IOW, the charge sort of sets limits and I keep thinking that "unlmited" texting is a fairly recent thing in phone packages now, but I'm not sure. I was sort of surprised to see that A T & T bit in Huff Post and NYT. One article mentioned that Adam's fans had the option of learning how to power text if they were so inclined. I didn't even know that "power texting" (sending 10 votes in one shot) existed, so I wouldn't have known to ask how to do it.

This post has been edited by ari333: May 27, 2009 @ 3:19 pm.

[mickeybordentwo]

I had a link to an article, but the article disappeared. Which is a shame, because it had a fabulous "overeager employees" headline.

Here's the less thrilling version of the article.

This post has been edited by mickeybordentwo: May 27, 2009 @ 3:25 pm.

[Bedloe11]

The egregious crime here is how the NYT reporter framed the story. He made some serious accusations without even bothering to research the whole picture. Kinda reminds me of journalists who predict the Emmy nominations a few years ago without even bothering to research that their prediction is impossible to happen based on the existing Emmy rules. People who posted in forums knew a lot more than the supposedly professional journalists did.

But the really annoying thing is how some of Adam fans exploit the issue by focusing on the wong angle, powertexting. That is not the issue because everybody can powertext. Adam sites even instruct his folowers how to do so. The real issue here is if At&T should be allowed to participate in the voting process. Kris' name should not be dragged to this mud. Adam fans have the opportunity to ask for At&T's assitance, but they didn't. It's their fault that they didn't think of it.

By extension, why not bring up Adam appearing solo on Entertainment Weekly, that influenced votes. Or how about Katy Perry's schtick while performing ON THE SHOW? These are also unethical examples of third party involvement in the show. And far more unfair to the other contestants (i.e., they cannot demand to be on a cover of a magazine) With At&T at least everyone can ask for their assistance. It just happens that Adam's fans didn't, but they could've if they asked.

[bm232]

I don't think the problem here is power texting. Every one of those contestants had at least one person power texting for them. The issue should be is it a conflict of interest for AT&T, one of if not the biggest sponsor of AI, to allow employees/representives to be involved in the voting of one and only one contestant. That doesn't sound right.

I've already addressed the issue of the AT&T employees above, so I want to talk about the other point: power texting.

If this article at ABC news is correct, then there are a substantial number of fans who are complaining about power texting, and are circulating petitions about it, and claiming that it is against Idol's voting rules. According to MJ, these fans are posters at IDF, and some of them have contacted her.

In fact, some of them claim to have sent the story to the NY Times themselves, and also claim to have campaigned to spread the story to other news outlets.

Now, this makes me twitchy, because if you're a hardcore enough fan to: (1) circulate online petitions to try and overturn the outcome of the season, (2) post at IDF, and (3) comment at MJ's blog, then I find it very, VERY hard to believe that you don't know about power texting/power voting, or that you don't powervote yourself.

Come on, now. Every single contestant thread at IDF has instructions for power-voting/texting. Hardcore fans all do it. It is not a phenomenon limited to a single contestant. I even knew about it as a casual viewer and non-voter last season.

So, to me, it looks like a bunch of fans who were upset that their favorite didn't win the competition deliberately tried to create a media controversy over power-voting, when they'd probably power-voted themselves this season. *That* doesn't sit right with me.

The egregious crime here is how the NYT reporter framed the story. He made some serious accusations without even bothering to research the whole picture.

This. I'm not sure if I agree about the EW issue and the Katy Perry issue, but this, right there, is absolutely the worst thing about this whole mess.