Did AT&T power texting win 'American Idol' for Kris Allen and rob Adam Lambert?

According to what I've heard today, it's very possible that AT&T cost Adam Lambert the American Idol title. Seems as though AT&T gave free power texting (10 votes in one text) for those calling in and voting for Kris Allen. AT&T reps were actually showing people how to do it. AT&T is the only company that people can text their vote thru. Sure doesn't seem on the up and up. Guess there's nothing that can be done about it now.

I KNEW Adam should have won!!

OH PUHLEASE!
Two watch parties, in Conway, AR invited ATT to come to said parties. I'd guess that we're talking MAYBE 25-30,000 people. So maybe an extra quarter of a million votes??? From everything I read, Kris received significantly more votes than Adam--much more than a quarter of million.
Power texting is and was available to anyone---it wasn't something that ATT invented just to keep Lambert from winning.
If Lambert's fans were too stupid, too arrogant, or too whatever to think to have ATT invited to their watch parties---it is their fault, not ATTs.

Really people! Why is it necessary to insinuate or out and out state that Kris won by some other means than being a solid and likeable performer?

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Mental that one, I'm telling you. ---Ron Weasley, "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets"

There is always some sort of drama every year about the winner after the final episode of American Idol. I don't watch the show at all, but I know that there is always something. LOL

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"Yesterday my life was duller, now everything's technicolor!"

I read that power texting has been going on for years in voting. I don't think it's something new.

And this was given to these groups by AT&T free of charge (there's normally a charge for every text vote to AI). Oh, well, I think Adam will be much bigger than Kris anyway. Probably better that he didn't win -- at least he won't have to sing that dorky song that Kris has to sing as his first single!!!

seriously....did you read anything about this other than the article you quoted?
Two watch parties--one on the UCA campus and approx. 2000 people.
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'Idol's' Adam Lambert Downplays Reports of Voting Irregularities - ABC News

Latest "Idol" Voting May Have Been Tainted - CBS News

FROM AN ADAM LAMBERT FAN SITE:
TheAdamLambertConnection.com search results: power text

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Mental that one, I'm telling you. ---Ron Weasley, "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets"

Seriously, yes! The ones you linked say the same thing the article I posted did. LOL! Geez, don't get so upset by it!!

The deal is, that even w/o the power texting people still would have texted 10 times, it just would have taken them longer. I don't think it made much of a difference.

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Mary

Well....I voted for Adam, BUT....I am not into this "It was rigged" cry that comes every season. A friend of mine set Adam up in her groups on TWO cell phones. That meant she voted 20 times for every one. She would not have been able to vote that many times if she had done one at a time, because she voted for the entire 4 hours, sending 20 each hit instead of 1.

I only sent one text at a time and only voted for about an hour, so in my case, it would be true that I would have voted that many times anyway, but not for those that voted for the entire time.

I know Adam will have an amazing career, and though it does bother me when this happens on the show, I know he is better off....just like Daughtry was!!!!(YUM)

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I heard a couple radio stations reporting about this, but they've all said the same thing, it wouldn't have made any difference. Even if that texting hadn't been done, it looks like Kris would have won by a lot anyway.

What difference does it make, really? Daughtry was #4 (I think) and look at his career. Clarkson was #1 and her career has been phenomenal. Goes to show that it doesn't make a bit of difference WHERE you finish in AI, just that you put out the kind of music people want to hear.

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No, they don't. Nowhere does it say that ATT didn't charge. The articles I linked provided information about how many phones (maybe 60-80) that ATT brought to the watch parties, how many people were in attendance of one of the watch parties....
My point is: power voting was available to Lambert fans (with detailed instructions on his fan website on how to do it), ATT would have come to Lambert watch party (but weren't invited). And you misrepresented what happened based on the NY Times articles.

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Mental that one, I'm telling you. ---Ron Weasley, "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets"

OH PUHLEASE!!!


Can you possiblly post without being so rude. How does NOT inviting AT&T reps to a party make them stupid or arrogant??

I am guessing that the AT&T people didn't come down from corporate headquarters but were local store owners or reps from AK. The whole local small town angle was pushed for Kris.

Apparently AT&T corporate was less than thrilled with this since their comment was something along the line of making sure their people knew that AT&T's involvement with AI was the entire competition and not support for individual contestants

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Nobody can make you feel inferior without your consent.

E. Roosevelt

AK--abbreviation for ALASKA

AR--abbreviation for ARKANSAS

AZ--abbreviation for ARIZONA

really, at least if you're going to get all pissy with me, at least get the freaking state correct!

We're talking 60-80 phones, divided amongst approx. 5000 people (two watch parties, one at UCA Campus--Kris' school was approx 2000 people).

If anyone thinks that 5000 people actually skewed 100 million votes (I believe that's what they said the total votes were) then I do question whether these people have math skills.

Furthermore, Lambert fans had the option to invite AT&T reps to their parties--they did not. Lambert fans were being instructed on how to power vote/text LONG before this story broke (which by the way? This story was reported last week in Arkansas papers and TV news...)

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Mental that one, I'm telling you. ---Ron Weasley, "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets"

Oh.. was Arizona mentoned in the story???

Given a choice of being rude or making an error in a state abbreviation, I'll take door number 2...but thanks so much for the correction.

By the way, nothing you posted changes what I said. The number of phones, the number of votes, etc. are not related to my contention that it was a local thing..not corporate .

Nothing pissy in either of my two posts on the topic....now on the other hand, you still cannot post without having a rude streak running through your tone. Sad.

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Nobody can make you feel inferior without your consent.

E. Roosevelt

maybe small town, but being only about 30 miles from Little Rock I'm sure the town was packed. And we'll probably never know how many phones there were <you guys talking 60-80 article i read said 20> Dont know how much of a change it caused. Wasnt the first time something was screwy with their system.

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Exactly....the local AT&T "people" were invited to the watch parties because apparently, the people in Conway and/or Little Rock were having problems actually getting through. The fans in those two cities wanted to make sure their vote(s) counted. They were very organized in their support of Kris Allen. Adam's fans weren't as organized as the people in Conway, AR.

And frankly, if you took it as rude--that's fine. That's your right. However, the original article posted did not contain some significant information (like only 2 of the demo phones brought were actually capable of power texting, it also made it sound as power texting was something that was made available only to the groups in Arkansas, it also alluded to the notion that AT&T handed a phone to every person there and everyone power texted). While my delivery may have been less than "nice" in your opinion--and it probably was--it doesn't alter the fact that the OP either intentionally or accidentally left out information germane to the discussion.
I think it's assinine to assert that a small group (probably about 5000 people) could have had any sort of advantage in a contest where there were 100 million votes.
As to the state abbreviation? I was simply pointing out that if you're going to argue a point, then you need to get the information correct. Personally, I'd rather be correct (and be perceived as a bitch) than be wrong and perceived as ignorant or misinformed.

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Mental that one, I'm telling you. ---Ron Weasley, "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets"

I am admittedly bad at math and I'm sure someone here will correct me if I'm wrong. I also realize I'm making some assumptions here. I'm pretty sure there was 4 hours to vote, but I might be wrong in that. I'm assuming you can text 4 times a minute. I don't text so I don't know. I am also taking the worst case here and using 80 phones, correctly and constantly used for the four hours.

60 minutes in an hour time four hours of voting equals 240 minutes.

240 minutes, times 4 voting times a minute equals 960 voting times.

960 voting times that count for 10 votes each equals 9600 votes.

9600 votes times 80 phones equals 768000 possible votes cast.

No matter the content of the post, I personally think the "OH PUHLEASE!!" part is rude. It rubs me the wrong way.....

Just one opinion.

cj/

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I was walking home one night and a guy hammering on a roof called me a paranoid little weirdo. In morse code. -Emo Phillips

yep...it's another one of those phrases that tone, inflection and body language can change the whole meaning of the phrase.

And yes, I meant it snarky in this instance. I find it insulting to both Kris and Adam to insinuate that there was cheating going on. I don't like to see sore losers (or sore losing fans) whether we're talking AI, sports or elections!

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Mental that one, I'm telling you. ---Ron Weasley, "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets"

Well, you got it right there. In your case you are perceived as both a bitch and ignorant....but you certainly are NOT misinformed in that you know all 50 of the the two letter state abbreviations
.

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Nobody can make you feel inferior without your consent.

E. Roosevelt

ahhh...but ignorant can be taught, stupid is another thing entirely! You can't fix stupid.

I readily admit that I'm ignorant of some things. And, I readily admit that I can be a bitch. And sometimes the two coincide.

(and yes, I do know all 50 abbreviations for the states--I thought everyone had been taught that in school)

So, see, you can call me a bitch--that's fine. However, if you would like to refute or argue any of the points I made, please do. I am always open for new information, should you have any to share. Unfortunately, for you, me being a bitch is not new information.

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Mental that one, I'm telling you. ---Ron Weasley, "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets"

OK. Shoot the messenger!! Here's is the direct quote from The New York Times. Please read it and then pick apart what is wrong with this one!! Nothing different than what was posted before! Get a life, please! It's American Idol, for goodness sakes -- not the presidential election!!

AT&T May Have Swayed ‘Idol’ Results
LinkedinDiggFacebookMixxMySpaceYahoo! BuzzPermalinkBy EDWARD WYATT
Published: May 26, 2009
LOS ANGELES — AT&T, one of the biggest corporate sponsors of “American Idol,” might have influenced the outcome of this year’s competition by providing phones for free text-messaging services and lessons in casting blocks of votes at parties organized by fans of Kris Allen, the Arkansas singer who was the winner of the show last week.

American IdolRepresentatives of AT&T, whose mobile phone network is the only one that can be used to cast “American Idol” votes via text message, provided the free text-messaging services at two parties in Arkansas after the final performance episode of “American Idol” last week, according to the company and people at the events.

There appear to have been no similar efforts to provide free texting services to supporters of Adam Lambert, who finished as the runner-up to Mr. Allen.

Since then, angry supporters of Mr. Lambert have flooded online chat boards with messages claiming irregularities in the competition’s voting.

Officials of Fox Broadcasting declined to discuss the situation. In a statement issued Tuesday, a spokesman for AT&T said, “In Arkansas, we were invited to attend the local watch parties organized by the community. A few local employees brought a small number of demo phones with them and provided texting tutorials to those who were interested.”

Details of the voting support were first reported last week in an article in The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.

Representatives of AT&T helped fans of Mr. Allen at the two Arkansas events by providing instructions on how to send 10 or more text messages at the press of a single button, known as power texts. Power texts have an exponentially greater effect on voting than do single text messages or calls to the show’s toll-free phone lines. The efforts appear to run afoul of “American Idol” voting rules in two ways. The show broadcasts an on-screen statement at the end of each episode warning that blocks of votes cast using “technical enhancements” that unfairly influence the outcome of voting can be thrown out.

And the show regularly states that text voting is open only to AT&T subscribers and is subject to normal rates.

If you guys think that this has not been going on all along then I have a bridge to sell you...

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Be careful what you wish for.....

If you guys think that this has not been going on all along then I have a bridge to sell you... OH and just to clarify things.. not knowing 2 letter abreviations off the top of ones head does NOT make someone ignorant..
When I was in grade school they taught three letter abbreviations...

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Be careful what you wish for.....

The article omits a few things that other articles have hit upon:
2 phones were provided at the Conway, AR watch party (2 phones capable of multi-texting)--2 phones, 2000 people. Really? How many extra votes did that bring in?

The article states that "There appear to have been no similar efforts to provide free texting services to supporters of Adam Lambert, who finished as the runner-up to Mr. Allen"---ummm...that's because no one in Lambert's fan base asked.

you brought it up! Your original post:
Now, you very well could have been, in your OP, saying it in a joking manner. However, you never indicated as such. Unfortunately, I'm not a mind reader (just a bitch) and have no idea what your thought process was when you posted.

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Mental that one, I'm telling you. ---Ron Weasley, "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets"

given that the two letter abbreviations have been in use since 1963, one could surmise that it's one of those things that people in this day and age should know.
WikiAnswers - When did the Post Office change the state abbreviations letters

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Mental that one, I'm telling you. ---Ron Weasley, "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets"

I don't know how many more times we can applaud you for knowing all 50 of the PO state abbreviations.

Yes, I guess it was taught in school but I graduated before that change..
Yes, I guess it is one of those important things that we all should have committed to memory even if we have no reason to send a letter to AK, AR, or even AZ...
However,, I do know where to find the information if it is important enough to look up..
So I am positive that I am NOT a stupid person...even making an error in my two letter state abbreviations. I am teachable, articulate and literate.

But YES, you do continue to show your ignorance...obviously, it is the ignorant that can't be taught since they don't see their own ignorance.

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Nobody can make you feel inferior without your consent.

E. Roosevelt

Sorry I still do three letter abbreviations... Never bothered to learn or pay attention to the two letter ones...

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Be careful what you wish for.....

oh....I must have struck a nerve with you. Sorry about that.
I never said you were stupid, I never said you weren't teachable, articulate or literate. You say you know where to look for the information, but either you chose not to or you just didn't care--I don't know.

I guess the fact that I assumed that most everyone knew the state abbreviations was ignorance on my part. I humbly apologize for my error, and will not assume that everyone knows the two letter abbreviations. Should the issue come up again, I will politely ask if the person is not aware of the correct abbreviations and provide them w/ a resource to find the correct abbreviations.
I'm sure you think I'm being bitchy at this point--but I'm not. I really did think that everyone would know the two letter abbreviation, I thought it was common knowledge. So, I guess I am guilty of ignorance to other people's ignorance. I will try harder to correct that.

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Mental that one, I'm telling you. ---Ron Weasley, "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets"

"You say you know where to look for the information, but either you chose not to or you just didn't care--I don't know." Maybe she just didnt care enough to look...
Marilyn Not everyone wants to run and look things up just to prove people wrong and shove it down their throats. Honestly some people could care less...

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Be careful what you wish for.....

Yep. I was right. The word STUPID did come up in one of your posts.


And actually , don't worry about your "ignorance to other people's ignorance"....worry about your own basic ignorance and inablity to interact with people in a civil way

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Nobody can make you feel inferior without your consent.

E. Roosevelt

I didn't have to run and go look "just to prove people wrong".

I apologized for my ignorance in thinking that something I thought was common knowledge was apparently not.
I apologize for harping on something that is a pet peeve of mine--I feel that it's important to use the proper abbreviation for things. Again, I write lots of things to lots of people daily; using an incorrect abbreviation could cost *ME* money in my writing, so I'm very aware of that sort of thing.

Sorry, it's among one of my many character flaws.

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Mental that one, I'm telling you. ---Ron Weasley, "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets"

ah, hon! I'm sorry if you perceived that use of stupid as a slight to you. Actually, I was meaning that at least you hadn't called me a stupid bitch (insinuating that I couldn't learn).

Other than that, I do apologize if what I have posted has offended you (and it obviously has). I understand how the way I posted could be offensive, and I'll try to refrain from that. Sometimes I post without really realizing exactly how what I'm saying could be perceived--another one of my many character flaws.

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Mental that one, I'm telling you. ---Ron Weasley, "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets"

Knowing one's shortcoming is the first step to overcoming them. Of course that would be true if you really thought they were flaws. I get the impression that you really don't think there is anything wrong with your way of posting. You have done so for quite some time, have been called on it, but continue doing so.

And don't "hon" me. I am identifiable by my screen name.

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Nobody can make you feel inferior without your consent.

E. Roosevelt

Wow! I can't win for losing can I?
I'm sorry I offended you with my usage of "hon". It's a term of endearment that I often use when speaking to people. I did not mean it any in a bad way.

Regardless of your perception of me, I have tried in the last few months to be a "nicer" and "kinder" poster. Unfortunately, I am not perfect and have slip ups. Today was one of those days--so, you can believe what you want. I don't really care at this point. I am sorry that I was snarky and bitchy. I have and am apologizing for it. I should have tempered my frustration and irritation. But, in all actuality, it doesn't really matter to you because you've made your mind up that you just don't like me (as the poster--because you darned sure don't know me personally). So, in the infamous words of my teenage babysitter: WHAT-Evah!

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Mental that one, I'm telling you. ---Ron Weasley, "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets"

I just think this is the right place for me to interject bragging of a very important skill that I have. I can list all the states in alphabetical order!! Woohoo! Is that cool or what? I'm neither ignorant nor stupid!

Anyone else learn the song "50 Nifty United States"? I bet you have this important skill too!

cj/

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I was walking home one night and a guy hammering on a roof called me a paranoid little weirdo. In morse code. -Emo Phillips

LOL - before I read your last sentence I thought to myself, "Bet she knows Fifty Nifty"...

Is that the one that says "what did Della wear, my son?". I don't know much of it, but I do remember a few corny lines.

Also, I never knew there were 3 letter abbreviations for states. I grew up abbreviating Pennsylvania "Penna", then we went to 2 letter abbreviations. I must admit that I do not know all of them, but I look them up as needed.

BTW, apologies to the OP. This is certainly off topic.

I can name all the capital cities. How do these things almost always end up in fights? Sounds like a house full of 6 year olds.

What would "these things" be.....topics/ threads in general??.....topics/ threads about AI/Adam????

How do these topics/threads almost always end up in fights? Do they?? Perhaps you ---like a 6 year old---can't discern the difference between a fight and a discussion.

But thanks so much for your enlightening contribution

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Nobody can make you feel inferior without your consent.

E. Roosevelt