I’m vindicated! The New York Times has an article today about how AT&T may have “fixed,” this year’s American Idol Voting by holding special events and providing free texting services for Kris Allen in Arkansas. There were rumors floating around that for such a small state Arkansas really “represented,” during the final voting. Now we know why, AT&T was behind it. Here’s the key passage from the article:
“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.” This service wasn’t provided to Lambert fans.