{"id":29,"date":"2009-05-27T22:26:28","date_gmt":"2009-05-27T22:26:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/everydayethics\/2009\/05\/american-idol-and-att-fair-play-or-no-fair.html"},"modified":"2009-05-27T22:26:28","modified_gmt":"2009-05-27T22:26:28","slug":"american-idol-and-att-fair-play-or-no-fair","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/2009\/05\/american-idol-and-att-fair-play-or-no-fair.html","title":{"rendered":"American Idol and AT&T: Fair Play or No Fair?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"americanidol.jpg\"<\/a><\/span>I’m the type of American Idol viewer who tunes in for a few songs, maybe follows one or two contestants until they’re voted off, and usually misses out on all the good controversy. So I can’t say that I’m the die-hard fan who screams foul if my pick doesn’t win, or laments that it’s the teeny boppers who are voting for the cutest contestant. <\/p>\n

However, I am<\/i> a big fan of fair play. The New York Times covered a story about AT&T’s possible influence over this season’s American Idol win<\/a>. According to both the company and reports from attendees, AT&T representatives appeared at two fan parties for Kris Allen, this year’s winner.  <\/p>\n


\nNot only did they attend the parties, they brought with them “demo”
\nphones, in order to demonstrate block texting, a mechanism in which to
\nsend 10 or more texts with a single push to a button. And<\/i> they let
\nattendees at these parties use the phones for free. No such
\nrepresentatives were present at Adam Lambert’s fan parties.<\/p>\n

While angry Lambert fans are claiming as many as 38 million votes came
\nout of Arkansas, no official numbers have been released by AT&T or
\nAmerican Idol. Personally, I find that number highly unlikely and
\nborderline ridiculous.<\/p>\n

I suppose the ethical question here, however, is whether or not there
\nshould be a American Idol coup, given that the one question seemingly
\nnot<\/b> in dispute is whether AT&T employees provided a number of fans
\nwith the means to “cheat”.  (From what I can tell, question is whether
\nthis was a plan devised by AT&T, a corporate sponsor, to bias the
\nresults or if it was merely a few wayward employees.) Should the entire
\ncompetition be thrown out? Have a do-over between Allen and Lambert? <\/p>\n

Or should everyone (mainly Lambert fans) take a deep breath and come to
\ntheir senses? A handful of representatives at two fan parties could try
\ntheir very hardest and still not have a discernible impact on the
\nmillions of votes cast that night.  So my gut tells me that ethical or
\nnot, fair play or no fair play, Lambert fans should stop hoping for
\nthat coup and come to terms with an Allen-led term of office.<\/p>\n

What do you think? Is my admittedly indifferent attitude regarding American Idol leading my gut astray? <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’m the type of American Idol viewer who tunes in for a few songs, maybe follows one or two contestants until they’re voted off, and usually misses out on all the good controversy. So I can’t say that I’m the die-hard fan who screams foul if my pick doesn’t win, or laments that it’s the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":198,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,22,6,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-by-padmini-mangunta","category-celebrity-behavior","category-current-events","category-ethics-responsibility"],"yoast_head":"\nAmerican Idol and AT&T: Fair Play or No Fair? - Everyday Ethics<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/2009\/05\/american-idol-and-att-fair-play-or-no-fair.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"American Idol and AT&T: Fair Play or No Fair? - Everyday Ethics\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I’m the type of American Idol viewer who tunes in for a few songs, maybe follows one or two contestants until they’re voted off, and usually misses out on all the good controversy. So I can’t say that I’m the die-hard fan who screams foul if my pick doesn’t win, or laments that it’s the…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/2009\/05\/american-idol-and-att-fair-play-or-no-fair.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Everyday Ethics\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-05-27T22:26:28+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/everydayethics\/files\/import\/assets_c\/2009\/05\/389696674_9e75fb9ee1_m-thumb-240x185-5351.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Padmini Mangunta\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"American Idol and AT&T: Fair Play or No Fair? - Everyday Ethics","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/2009\/05\/american-idol-and-att-fair-play-or-no-fair.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"American Idol and AT&T: Fair Play or No Fair? - Everyday Ethics","og_description":"I’m the type of American Idol viewer who tunes in for a few songs, maybe follows one or two contestants until they’re voted off, and usually misses out on all the good controversy. So I can’t say that I’m the die-hard fan who screams foul if my pick doesn’t win, or laments that it’s the…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/2009\/05\/american-idol-and-att-fair-play-or-no-fair.html","og_site_name":"Everyday Ethics","article_published_time":"2009-05-27T22:26:28+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/everydayethics\/files\/import\/assets_c\/2009\/05\/389696674_9e75fb9ee1_m-thumb-240x185-5351.jpg"}],"author":"Padmini Mangunta","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/2009\/05\/american-idol-and-att-fair-play-or-no-fair.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/2009\/05\/american-idol-and-att-fair-play-or-no-fair.html","name":"American Idol and AT&T: Fair Play or No Fair? - Everyday Ethics","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/2009\/05\/american-idol-and-att-fair-play-or-no-fair.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/2009\/05\/american-idol-and-att-fair-play-or-no-fair.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/everydayethics\/files\/import\/assets_c\/2009\/05\/389696674_9e75fb9ee1_m-thumb-240x185-5351.jpg","datePublished":"2009-05-27T22:26:28+00:00","dateModified":"2009-05-27T22:26:28+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/#\/schema\/person\/f3ed03a01300bae11302f037d0eb91f1"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/2009\/05\/american-idol-and-att-fair-play-or-no-fair.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/2009\/05\/american-idol-and-att-fair-play-or-no-fair.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/2009\/05\/american-idol-and-att-fair-play-or-no-fair.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/everydayethics\/files\/import\/assets_c\/2009\/05\/389696674_9e75fb9ee1_m-thumb-240x185-5351.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/everydayethics\/files\/import\/assets_c\/2009\/05\/389696674_9e75fb9ee1_m-thumb-240x185-5351.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/2009\/05\/american-idol-and-att-fair-play-or-no-fair.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"American Idol and AT&T: Fair Play or No Fair?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/","name":"Everyday Ethics","description":"Moral Ethics Blog","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/#\/schema\/person\/f3ed03a01300bae11302f037d0eb91f1","name":"Padmini Mangunta","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/5a4\/5a49e4a981c7ab22c6c140c90fe5d812x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/5a4\/5a49e4a981c7ab22c6c140c90fe5d812x96.jpg","caption":"Padmini Mangunta"},"description":"Padmini Mangunta is a writer and editor with a Journalism degree from the University of Missouri-Columbia. In addition to writing for a various print and online publications, such as Parenting Magazine and iVillage, she was the Website Manager for the Henry Street Settlement, a social services and arts organization serving Manhattan's Lower East Side. Most recently, she worked on the Thai-Myanmar border as a writer for the Burma Human Rights Yearbook. Her curiosity about human nature, coupled with duel streaks of idealism and Midwestern pragmatism, developed into an ongoing discussion with friends, family and strangers on ethical quandaries. When she's not asking \"Why?\" you might have trouble finding her, as her hobbies include nosing around used bookstores, exploring the world (near and far), meeting new people and occasionally twiddling her thumbs while daydreaming.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/author\/pmangunta"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/198"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}