The New York Times Throws Fuel on the Fire of Crazy Idol Fan Conspiracy Theories
ETAA:Â Hey IDFers, it never even occurred to me to pitch this story to the NY Post. Because, I think it’s a non-story.
ETA: Holy Cow. Check out this thread at Idol Forums. Some Adam fans have been keeping themselves busy harassing contacting media outlets, making them aware of all their crazed conspiracy theories. Serious LOlz if this Times story was prompted by a Claymate-like email campaign… The kids at IDF are sure taking credit for it…
And now, from the “Oh No They Di’int” department:
The New York Times has thrown it’s ‘mighty reporting weight behind…Idol Fan Conspiracy Theories!
I mean, I wasn’t the least bit surprised when Extra TV wondered if Idol votes were legit (and still quoting the 38 million votes out of Arkansas story days after it had been debunked…)
But the New York Times? Really? Here’s a snip of their breathless reporting on this oh-so-important subject:
LOS ANGELES à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬’ AT&T, one of the biggest corporate sponsors of à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“American Idol,à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬ might have influenced the outcome of this yearà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢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.
Representatives of AT&T, whose mobile phone network is the only one that can be used to cast à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“American Idolà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬ votes via text message, provided the free text-messaging services at two parties in Arkansas after the final performance episode of à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“American Idolà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬ last week, according to the company and people at the events.
If the Times writer had any sense of Idol history, he’d know that AT&T rep-attended Idol parties have been going on for years. I remember hearing about reps helping Elliot Yamin and Taylor Hicks fans text back in Season 5.
The Times goes on to note that “there appears 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.”
Appears to have been? Did the Times reporter even attempt to check it out? And even if there were no AT&T reps present at any Adam Lambert viewing parties, I don’t think we’ve got a story here unless it’s proven that AT&T willfully avoided helping out the fans of other Idol contestants.
It’s business as usual for Idol sponsors, AT&T, who attend these Idol viewing parties hoping to sell more phone services. No big conspiracy theories here. And anyway, I highly doubt a couple of phone salespeople showing some Kris Allen fans how to text vote made a difference in last week’s results.
But, now that the Times has covered it, watch as this non-story explodes on the news cycle in the next couple of days…
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411 Responses to “The New York Times Throws Fuel on the Fire of Crazy Idol Fan Conspiracy Theories”
We all know that the Idol show is not really a talent contest. Adam has real talent and he will have his day… and many of them. At least the show got him recognized as that talent. Buy his albums – thats where the real ‘count’ does count!
NOPE. You need to re-read the AT&T press release:
So, no. There were not 178 million text votes cast in the competition…
I’m die hard Adam fan all the way. That being said, I will openly admit that for me, the loss was devastating and I sincerely doubt I will ever watch another Season of Idol. I know that Kris won, and he deserved it as much as Adam did. The media needs to stop with this conspiracy theory crap. Kris won, that’s fine. He’s a nice guy and I think he truly needed this win in order to have his career take off. Adam did not need this win, I think that of the 2 Adam will have a longer more successful career regardless of the AI title. For me Adam could burp into a microphone and I’d love it (just like the Kris fans feel that way about Kris) I’m biased towards Adam and don’t mean any disrespect to Kris. It’s just how I feel. The media needs to let it go and let Kris enjoy the victory.
I’m right there with all the people who can’t believe Adam lost, but internalize it a little more, rant a little on how devastated you are on a blog and be done with it. No need to drag major media sources to fan the flames, or demand recounts or whatever. They are both American Idols, the only difference is that one of them gets to be called the “Official” American Idol. Adam & Kris have accepted the results, we need to do that too.
This is like the hanging chads in Florida in 2000, nothing will come of the Idol voting controversy. Its just a distraction for bored Idol fans like myself who are going through Idol withdrawal. At least the White House isn’t in the balance! That being said, I think the voting system stinks and if you believe anything either Fox or AT&T says you still believe in Santa Claus and the tooth fairy. They are both big greedy corporations reaping millions of dollars off of the show.
Both Adam and Kris are stand up guys, looking forward to their careers. I hope both do awesomely well. But I will never waste my time voting for Idol again, why bother if you just have a landline? Not that it matters, but I was for Adam.
that the New York Times is even addressing this non-issue is more indicative of their general desperation to appear relevant these days, since they’re heading down the tubes along with numerous other newspapers.
I can’t believe I read every single comment, I must be insane! I can’t say it wasn’t a complete waste of time though, I learned a new word “douchenozzle” – WOW! That is one cool word, I seriously love it! BTW I’m an “older” Adam fan, but if anybody ever refers to me as a “cougar” OR a “Lambert” I’ll smack ‘em up the side of the head. And while I’m at it, I’ll call them a douchenozzle. Now I almost hope it happens cuz it sounds like fun!
Great job, MJ! You called it both ways. This IS a non-story. And it got taken to the mainstream media, with all the hard-hitting journalistic words like “appear,” “might,” “could,” “should” and “possibly. I applaud your honesty and integrity here!
Also, if you look at that coverage map, approximately 1/3 of the state of Arkansas isn’t included in AT&T’s range. That leads me to believe the statements such as, “everyone in Arkansas is on AT&T” must also be exaggerated!
I think we should take Adam’s lead as example. Like politics, this will never end if both side doesn’t back down. I actually agree with one( kansasgirl?). Seemed like she’s only one that suggested improvement.
I think I’m just going to watch any Adam video as much as I can. I was never a fan of anything, but just a person who like to read comments and laugh at funny ones. I didn’t start to vote until Season 8 because I want Adam to win. I was upset that Adam didn’t win, still am. I’m working this out on my own. I am just sad but not angry at Kris’s fans and I don’t like to talk negatively about Kris.
I loved Adam’s music. I actually like to listen to his other music (there isn’t much) before the American Idol on Youtube. Can’t wait to see what he come up with.
This is just my two cents: I don’t think the ones who had their mind set on “Kamikaze mode” will listen to reasons. Maybe both Adam & Kris should come out together in a news conference and speak out together and direct the issue and tell the fans to cool it. Let everyone know that they do feel their love but don’t want it this way. I don’t know, just a thought.
Despite whatever happened in Ark with ATT, I don’t think it really affected the voting outcome. I think Kris likely had the greater number of votes either way. Too many people out there, when it came right down to it, weren’t ready for the American Idol to be Adam Lambert and made sure that Kris had enough votes to win. Kris is really a good choice for the title. He is clean cut, innocuous, talented, a nice guy. Adam trumps him in natural giftedness but America really doesn’t appreciate the gifted and the stand outs anyway. Make them a little alternative and flamboyant, well, you KNOW they are not going to appreciate them. Adam is blessed to finish #2. Let’s Kris have #1 and the bragging rights and all that represents with our whole hearts. Adam doesn’t need that at all. And Kris, you don’t need to send any condolences to Adam’s fan. We know he doesn’t need a trophy. You keep that on your mantle, all nice and shiny.:) Adam will make do with a Grammy or two.
(this is in reference to a KA radio interview about letting Adam borrow the title, puhLEASE)
The statement about Taylor and Elliott text voting sounds odd to me. I voted on many sites during season 5 and witnessed alot behind the scenes.. It was Katherine McPhee’s tech savvy crowd who would come in and shoot one million votes in on a fox poll or radio website poll within one hours time wiping out our weeks of work competing in a poll . I was behind the scenes daily voting on various websites and saw the numbers and percentages change so fast it was truly unbelievable but very real.
I read about the planning of extreme technical voting on a very popular website which is now defunct where we could view the videos of the previous show of each of the contestants.
On that site I read about the tech savvy middle aged men who had a chat room who worked on getting Katherine McPhee to the top with massive voting. I won’t print the name of who knew this information who ran this website but he was very privy to what went on and shared it on his website and had a link to the room listed where the planning of advanced voting for Katherine McPhee was taking place.
I saw the extreme voting with my own eyes and was disheartened when over one million votes were some how caste in one hour on polls wiping out weeks of votes from many other fans. I can only imagine what they did to get Kat McPhee second to Taylor Hicks and beating out Elliott Yamin by a small margin.