PowerTextGate: The Last Word (Or At Least I Hope It Is, Because Man Am I Sick Of This Story)

“Fox and the producers of ‘American Idol’ are absolutely certain that the results of this competition are fair, accurate and verified. Kris Allen is, without a doubt, the American Idol. We have an independent third-party monitoring procedure in place to ensure the integrity of the voting process. In no way did any individuals unfairly influence the outcome of the competition.”

And from the former Ma Bell:

“Last week, countless parties were held in homes, bars, and other public places across America to watch the ‘American Idol’ finale. In Arkansas, a few local AT&T employees were invited to attend two local watch parties organized by the community. Caught up in the enthusiasm of rooting for their hometown contestant, they brought a small number of demo phones with them and provided texting tutorials to those who were interested. Going forward, we will make sure our employees understand our sponsorship celebrates the competition, not individual contestants. That said, it’s quite a leap to suggest that a few individuals could have impacted the final results.”

Those “few individuals”? They had about 80 phones between them — not a super-significant amount, unless they wore out their fingers creating 1,000-member distribution lists. So fine, the employees of that AT&T Store are probably going to get a slap on the wrist, and all their co-workers around the country will get a hastily added appendix to their employee manual. Can we all go back to talking about how Adam Lambert is a self-proclaimed “top” now? [via MJ]