» My Eyes! Scandals on American Idol Options

[Buderschnookie]

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.

Except that neither of them are official sponsors of the show.
AT&T is, and as such is held to a (presumably) higher standard.
At least their statement addressed that portion of the drama.

[Bedloe11]

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.

Except that neither of them are official sponsors of the show. AT&T is, and as such is held to a (presumably) higher standard. At least their statement addressed that portion of the drama.

Yes, I agree. But I was directing that staement to the Adam fans who cry foul about fairness.

[kuromaku]

Adam fans have the opportunity to ask for At&T's assitance,

IF they are AT&T customers. And that applies to Kris's or whoever's fans also. (Although it looks like some of Kris's fans got an additional boost because at least some AT&T phones were provided for them.) My problem with the whole thing is that if you are an AT&T customer, you get to vote - not just text vote, but vote. If you aren't - well, good luck.

I work in the exciting world of communications technology (yes, you may envy me) and datacenters that I work with had to route traffic around AT&T where possible. If the final destination was AT&T, you were SOL. Could not get traffic into that network. So AT&T customers had a big advantage. Texting had a double advantage because (1) it all originated within the network and (2) in general, that traffic can pile up and go through when there's room for it. My guess, based on what people here were saying about text confirmation delays, is that it didn't matter when the text was received, the vote counted if it was SENT during the voting period.

Whether the whole situation favored Kris or not, I have no idea. But it certainly favors AT&T customers to an increasing degree - AT&T Idol, not American Idol.

[texas toast]

This is the first article that I've seen that addresses Adam's fans being pointed in the direction of power texting. It's from People Magazine online. Maybe this so-called "scandal" will blow over by tomorrow.

Though it doesn’t appear that AT&T provided such services to Lambert fans, the power texting technique was also encouraged in San Diego, his hometown. Fliers were distributed to fans there the weekend of his visit, instructing voters on how to power text. One flier instructs fans on how send “between 3K-5K votes in 2 hours — by power texting 10 votes at a time,” and another one encouraged fans to buy a phone and an unlimited texting plan to “send 3K votes easily.”

Meanwhile, a source tells PEOPLE, more than 5,000 fans were given fliers at a rally for Lambert at Mt. Carmel High School, where the Idol runner-up attended.

This post has been edited by texas toast: May 27, 2009 @ 6:14 pm.

[Big Machine]

If this has any effect on AI, it should be a limit on the number of Text votes. Whether it's per hour, or a total number, it doesn't matter.

Now that these tactics are pretty much passing through to the mainstream, it's only going to promote contestants with (for lack of a better term) "extremist" fanbases, and Idol loses its mainstream cred, since regular people will really see how little their vote(s) matter.

[ari333]

Bedloe11
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.

Buderschnookie
Except that neither of them are official sponsors of the show. AT&T is, and as such is held to a (presumably) higher standard. At least their statement addressed that portion of the drama.

Bedloe11
Yes, I agree. But I was directing that staement to the Adam fans who cry foul about fairness.

I see he point, but the "scandal" issue for me is that AT & T is a sponsor as mentioned, so AT & T benefits from the actions. Also, AT & T's actions directly effected the votes. Perry's crappy performance did not directly effect voting at all (and certainly imo not in a beneficial way b/c she sucked out loud.) And side note, I didn't even see his name on the cape and didn't know about it until someone posted it here. Anyway, to me there's a distinct difference b/w AT & T, EW cover, and Perry's cape; Perry and EW don't directly have anything to do with the voting itself. There's no correlation imo. People don't vote via ballots inserted into the EW magazine. Text voting is done by AT & T phones. I don't think "Adam fans" are the only ones disturbed by this. If Adam had won and the tables were turned, I would still feel the same about the issue - meaning that it stinks.

Big Machine
Now that these tactics are pretty much passing through to the mainstream, it's only going to promote contestants with (for lack of a better term) "extremist" fanbases, and Idol loses its mainstream cred, since regular people will really see how little their vote(s) matter.

THIS. This exactly. I can see many folks saying why vote ? Why bother? Just let the AT &T people decide. And if the AT &T folks are deciding why shoudl I watch the show if part of the entertainment is the viewers' voting and the choosing? (or the feeling that that's what's happening) Also, to me, putting instructions on a fan site and passing out flyers is far far different in theory and practice (for the obvious reasons) than what AT & T did at the Arkansas watch parties.

This post has been edited by ari333: May 27, 2009 @ 6:44 pm.

[LexieWallace]

Must admit that it chaps me off that because I don't have ATT that I only managed to get in 16 votes in two hrs worth of calling because of all the busy signals. I'm sure that my 4800 texts (or whatever) would have been much more valuable to the person that I voted for.

[ari333]

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.

Maybe I misunderstood something in the scandal. Were AT &T phones provided at the watch parties? B/c in order to power text (assuming one knows about it and how to do it etc) being given access to an AT &T phone (and by AT & T reps) is the pertinent part of that equation to me.

And I understand the obvious argument about "Well, if you don't happen to have an AT&T phone you're SOL; sorry; go get one." I get that part. But when the phones are provided by AT & T to some people and not others, that adds a whole other spin to the situation.

LexieWallace
Must admit that it chaps me off that because I don't have ATT that I only managed to get in 16 votes in two hrs worth of calling because of all the busy signals. I'm sure that my 4800 texts (or whatever) would have been much more valuable to the person that I voted for.

THIS. Had one been provided for you with instructions on how to send 10 votes in one shot, you'd have likely taken advantage of it.

Also, all the instructions on fan sites and flyers on earth don't mean beans if you don't have an AT&T phone, but on the other hand, if you're given one....

This post has been edited by ari333: May 27, 2009 @ 7:03 pm.

[nymphaea]

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.

I mostly agree, but exchange "didn't get as much praise as the fan thought they deserved" for "win the competition" and you're describing basically the vast majority of knollery. If this isn't any different than the Perry cape/EW cover than the people who bitched about that should be upset about this, too.

[bm232]

Maybe I misunderstood something in the scandal. Were AT&T phones provided at the watch parties? B/c in order to power text (assuming one knows about it and how to do it etc) being given access to an AT&T phone (and by AT & T reps) is the pertinent part of that equation to me.

And I understand the obvious argument about "Well, if you don't happen to have an AT&T phone you're SOL; sorry; go get one." I get that part. But when the phones are provided by AT&T to some people and not others, that adds a whole other spin to the situation.

My original post probably wasn't clear enough: I was making two different points.

1) According to the ABC news article that I linked, a substantial number of fans who are circulating petitions and complaining about unfair voting practices aren't just complaining about the AT&T phones, they are complaining about the use of power voting as a general principle. i.e. (again, if I have understood the quotes in the ABC article correctly) they are saying, "Power voting in and of itself is against the AI voting rules and is unfair."

2) As kuromaku pointed out (and as MJ also points out in the ABC article), this is more about AT&T than Idol. I find it hard to believe that AT&T cares who wins American Idol, and I find it even harder to believe that, if they *did* care, they would have wanted Kris to win rather than Adam, given how the judges have acted this season. Handing out AT&T phones at watch parties is a move to sell and promote AT&T phones, not a particular contestant. From what has happened at watch parties in past seasons, I find it hard to believe that there was not a single Adam Lambert watch party in the entire country where AT&T employees did not do the exact same thing--i.e. hand out a few phones and teach people how to text vote. Which would make this whole issue null and void, because both finalists would have received the same treatment.

But the NY Times article implies, through evasive and vague language, that *only* Kris Allen watch parties received AT&T phones. It offers no proof of this statement, and I can only conclude that this is because the journalist could not find any such proof. If he *had*, then he would have said so, because that only strengthens and validates the point of his article.

And yet the press has picked up the story and run with it as though the original article had given such proof. That's what I consider irresponsible and lazy reporting.

This post has been edited by bm232: May 27, 2009 @ 7:27 pm.

[grammamia]

This story broke about 6 hours ago right? And in that time period no one has said that Lambert fans had "watch" parties with FREE AT&T phones. In this information at the speed of light age of the internet, I find it plausable that there were indeed NO free AT&T phones given to Adam Lamberts fan base.

[PandemoniumTV]

I just read the New York Times article and felt that I had to comment on it here.
As a die-hard Adam Lambert supporter, who voted on a land-line phone (no AT&T), I'm absolutely horrified that AT&T did something that seems biased to me.
But, there were so many plugs for Adam (Simon! Katy!) that maybe they thought it was okay to even out the playing field...? If so, their reasoning is horrific.

But the NY Times article implies, through evasive and vague language, that *only* Kris Allen watch parties received AT&T phones. It offers no proof of this statement, and I can only conclude that this is because the journalist could not find any such proof. If he *had*, then he would have said so, because that only strengthens and validates the point of his article.

It shocks me that there's no die-hard proof, but I personally believe that it shows incompetent journalism skills & a possible motive.
Is there any reason why AT&T would prefer Kris over Adam? If not, then I have to fully agree with the above quote.

[mcg2000]

Kuramaku - interesting info. So, with a landline (AT&T), I could get in a lot of votes. My Verizon cell phone was pretty useless after top 13 week, and once I even tried a different contestant to see if it was who I was voting for or the network. I bought a Go Phone w/ unlimited text as the competition wore on but on the last nite, I don't recall getting a text confirmation. I don't if that means my votes didn't go thru. But if you're voting by calling on a cell, do your calls have a better chance of making it thru wih AT&T versus other carriers?

[9crimes]

This story broke about 6 hours ago right? And in that time period no one has said that Lambert fans had "watch" parties with FREE AT&T phones. In this information at the speed of light age of the internet, I find it plausable that there were indeed NO free AT&T phones given to Adam Lamberts fan base.

Proving a negative is, logically speaking, problematic and fallacious, and I would have to disagree with this conclusion. The fact that information sharing is so enabled by the internet does not mean that the relevant information will necessarily be shared. The fact that there are no such indicators from Adam's fanbase is just that -- well, there are no indicators from Adam's fanbase. Which doesn't prove or disprove anything.

Ugh, the shoddy journalism of it all.

[ohbrother]

The fact that there are no such indicators from Adam's fanbase is just that -- well, there are no indicators from Adam's fanbase. Which doesn't prove or disprove anything.

You'd think that it would be easy enough to dig up some A, T & T spokesperson to say that they did, indeed, give out similar phones and assistance at some Adam Lambert parties just to end the whole stupid thing.