'American Idol' Finale Scandal

There is a mini-scandal surrounding the results of Season 8 of American Idol. Conflicting reports indicate that AT&T, one of the show's major sponsors, may have intentionally influenced the outcome of the final, causing what is generally seen as an "upset win" for Kris Allen over the expected favorite, Adam Lambert. Yahoo! News reports that some AT&T employees took demo phones to several finale parties in Kris Allen's home state of Arkansas, where they allegedly instructed attendees how to "power text," i.e., send multiple texts to the same number at one time. It is reported that this was done in order to influence the outcome of the finale in Kris Allen's favor. An Arkansas newspaper Fox's KLRT-TV affiliate in Little Rock, reported that 38 million votes came out of Arkansas that night, a stunning 13 times the population of the entire state. Hard to believe, yes. Impossible, not in the least. Particularly if AT&T insiders were involved. The station has since retracted the report, and AT&T of course, denies all allegations, claiming that the results of the finale are "fair and verified."

Really? Is that why the employees who took the demo phones to finale parties were chastised by AT&T? Or, maybe that's why American Idol producers are refusing to release the actual vote tally? Or why AT&T is reporting that customer-base voting in this season's show are 70% higher than last season? I would dismiss it all as in invented scandal except for the scramble to cover up and dismiss. Could it be, just maybe, that Fox, the producer of AI, is just a little bit homophobic? Just ask Clay Aiken, who now admits that he knew he was gay when he was on Idol, but "for personal reasons" chose not to disclose his sexuality. And now we see Adam Lambert going through the same thing -- admitting that he didn't want the sensation of his sexuality overshadowing the contest. I'm sure Kris Allen did win. But, I'd bet you anything it was with a little help from the sponsors.