Another American Idol Controversy

Surprise, Surprise. It wouldn't feel like American Idol unless there was some major scandal going on... I guess. Here is the most pertinent fact: Kris Allen is the American Idol and all the disappointment felt by disappointed Adam Lambert fans (myself included) can't change that one fact. So you get over it, remember that the runners-up in this contest have gone on to huge careers and realize that Adam's probably working on his CD even as you read this.

Be like Adam and wish Kris well and hope for the best for the new Idol.

Now, on to the scandal which it is for certain does not personally involve any actual contestant but does involve unethical and possibly illegal behavior on the part of one major American company and sponsor of the American Idol program. That would be AT&T.

From the Los Angles Times:

Published reports have raised questions whether AT&T, a program sponsor, may have violated "Idol" voting rules at two pre-finale parties thrown for Kris Allen, the Arkansas crooner crowned winner last Wednesday. Partisans of Adam Lambert, the runner-up, have generated stormy online protests about alleged voting improprieties that could have thrown the outcome.

AT&T confirmed that its employees handed out phones to party guests in Arkansas and then offered pointers on how to text votes. The reports said the workers also briefed guests on how to "power-text" multiple votes at once, which would have been a violation of "Idol's" rules.

The fracas has embarrassed AT&T, which has for years gotten repeated shout-outs from "Idol" host Ryan Seacrest in exchange for its paid sponsorship.

In a statement, the company said its workers were "caught up in the enthusiasm of rooting for their hometown contestant."

You can read the rest of the L.A. Times article here.

So AT&T handed out over 1,000 phones and instructions on how to "power text" multiple votes for Kris Allen. And the voting was open for several hours.

One of the comments on this news story mentioned, "Someone with a phone with free service, sending 10 texts at a time, could have send thousands of texts over those four hours."

Another comment: "Sending out 10 at a time? You could do that in five minutes. I have an iPhone, which does not do blanket texts (that I've been able to figure out). It takes less than five seconds to send a text, times four hours, times 10. I'm no math whiz, but I have a calculator. At five seconds per text, that's 12 per minute, times 60 = 720 per hour, x 4 = 2,880 per four hours, x 10 = 28,800. Going at a moderate pace, one person could easily send 30,000 votes."

Another comment: "i just want to say, all the hype about phones messing up, the count/vote was wrong, whatever happened! NOTHING HAPPENED!!! yes Adam had followers but Kris had his followers plus Matt followers started following Kris when he left and Danny G followers started following Kris when he left... so basically KRIS got all of the other votes. The folks following the RB kind of a genre were going to follow that genre, they were not going to switch to rock, so Kris picked up alot of people who were voting for other contestants. Adam only had the rockers who were voting for him and maybe Allison. Leave it alone.. KRIS won and Adam will move on doing something anyways."

And the last comment: "All of this suspicion began not because Adam Lambert fans were grumpy but because Arkansas newspapers and politicians gloated that 38 million votes came from Arkansas--and then the story was withdrawn because: 1) Arkansans realized that this was embarrassing, not something to be proud of; 2) AT&T didn't want to reveal that Idol "voting" is ridiculous--a cash cow for AT&T but not in any way a true representation of American opinion."

The following avatars came from a very entertaining website called, "Vote For the Worst" and they always have great Idol gossip: