http://www.msnbc.com/news/743584.asp?0cv=CB20
Clay waz robbed ... this is almost worse than that alcholoic,"C" average,coke-sniffing, war evading, brother-election-rigging rat in DC ...
... I'm not surprised seeing how Rupert Murdoch is Dubya's #1 fan. He probably asked the elf-eared drug-header for for the playbook on this fix
May 27, 2003 / 11:23 a.m. ET
Calling Woodward and Bernstein: Nobody ever said “American Idol” was running a democracy, least of all the producers. But given the peculiar voting arrangements for last week’s Ruben Studdard-Clay Aiken showdown, it looks more and more like the version of democracy installed by the U.S. Supreme Court a couple of years ago.
I thought I wasn’t going to have to write about “American Idol” again until next season. I’ve already had my say (too many times for my own sanity) about the show’s flawed voting system and was even willing to overlook hundreds upon hundreds of e-mails from Clay Aiken fans that they was robbed.
But now comes unequivocal proof — reported by the Evansville Courier & Press in Indiana — that Cinergy Communications took 169,382 misdialed phone calls intended for Aiken and 72,114 for Studdard during the three-hour voting period for last Tuesday’s finals — all because of a glitch having to do with changed phone keypads.
Cynergy, a telecommunications company in Evansville, provides telephone service throughout the Midwest and the South, according to the newspaper. What’s really interesting is that the glitch has revealed a huge swath of 241,496 real votes to an independent observer. And this has enabled us to see an actual voting pattern, something the show’s producers have never allowed.
That pattern — more than 2 to 1 in Aiken’s favor — throws the show’s results into doubt even if the margin for Studdard’s win is only narrowed and not overturned from that swath alone. As Courier & Press reporter Rich Davis writes, “If this were a political election instead of an entertainment contest Aiken might seek a recount and call [Cynergy] as a witness ...”
But that’s being optimistic. Our great democracy has shown that counts and recounts yield doubtful results. Anyway, as they say in “Idol’-land, both finalists are winners all the way, n’est-ce pas?
Clay waz robbed ... this is almost worse than that alcholoic,"C" average,coke-sniffing, war evading, brother-election-rigging rat in DC ...
... I'm not surprised seeing how Rupert Murdoch is Dubya's #1 fan. He probably asked the elf-eared drug-header for for the playbook on this fix
May 27, 2003 / 11:23 a.m. ET
Calling Woodward and Bernstein: Nobody ever said “American Idol” was running a democracy, least of all the producers. But given the peculiar voting arrangements for last week’s Ruben Studdard-Clay Aiken showdown, it looks more and more like the version of democracy installed by the U.S. Supreme Court a couple of years ago.
I thought I wasn’t going to have to write about “American Idol” again until next season. I’ve already had my say (too many times for my own sanity) about the show’s flawed voting system and was even willing to overlook hundreds upon hundreds of e-mails from Clay Aiken fans that they was robbed.
But now comes unequivocal proof — reported by the Evansville Courier & Press in Indiana — that Cinergy Communications took 169,382 misdialed phone calls intended for Aiken and 72,114 for Studdard during the three-hour voting period for last Tuesday’s finals — all because of a glitch having to do with changed phone keypads.
Cynergy, a telecommunications company in Evansville, provides telephone service throughout the Midwest and the South, according to the newspaper. What’s really interesting is that the glitch has revealed a huge swath of 241,496 real votes to an independent observer. And this has enabled us to see an actual voting pattern, something the show’s producers have never allowed.
That pattern — more than 2 to 1 in Aiken’s favor — throws the show’s results into doubt even if the margin for Studdard’s win is only narrowed and not overturned from that swath alone. As Courier & Press reporter Rich Davis writes, “If this were a political election instead of an entertainment contest Aiken might seek a recount and call [Cynergy] as a witness ...”
But that’s being optimistic. Our great democracy has shown that counts and recounts yield doubtful results. Anyway, as they say in “Idol’-land, both finalists are winners all the way, n’est-ce pas?
