Did AT& T Boost Allen to 'Idol' Win?

Fox went with Stout Denial and AT&T polished a You Gotta Be Kidding gag over an Arkansas newspaper's report that AT&T might have affected the outcome of the latest "American Idol" competition, when phone-company employees helped Kris Allen fans cast votes at "Idol" viewing parties by providing phones and on-site power-texting help.

Meanwhile, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, which broke the story, is reporting many more details of the "texting zones," which were reportedly set up by AT&T staffers last week at two viewing parties organized by Allen fans in his home town of Conway and in nearby Little Rock.

That matters because AT&T is one of "Idol's" biggest corporate sponsors and its mobile phone network is the only one that viewers could use to vote for their favorite Idolette via text message. And, of course, because AT&T staffers providing help to fans of one contestant while those fans are determining the outcome of a singing-competition series in which the winner lands a multimillion-dollar recording contract is exquisitely inappropriate. And, of course, it doesn't help that Allen did wind up beating Adam Lambert.

"Fox and the producers of 'American Idol' are absolutely certain that the results of this competition are fair, accurate and verified," the network said in a statement issued yesterday. "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."

That statement is a classic case of Crisis Management 101: Don't answer the question you're asked ("Did AT&T provide help booths at Kris Allen fan viewing parties last Tuesday?") and answer the question you want to answer.

The statement came out one week after the Democrat-Gazette buried the lead in its coverage of the two Kris Allen viewing parties.

"In Conway after Tuesday's performance, fans at the Estes Stadium watch party took out wireless phones and started making calls and firing off text messages -- some voting on the own devices and others on phones borrowed from AT&T, which supplied about 50 display units and representatives to teach multiple 'power texting,' " the paper reported in paragraph 16 of its 24-paragraph story in last week's story.

"AT&T also made about 30 phones available in a 'texting zone' at a watch party at the Peabody Little Rock hotel," the paper continued. (The article's lead: "Cheerleaders. Nachos. Fandom.")

AT&T decided to make light of the paper's findings:

"Last week, countless parties were held in homes, bars, and other public places across America to watch the 'American Idol' finale," the company said in a statement issued yesterday. "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."

"Small number" is AT&T-speak for "about 80 phones" -- and those are only the ones caught by the two reporters at the Democrat-Gazette. They'd gotten that number from the AT&T staffers manning those texting zones at the two parties.

Today, in response to the Fox and AT&T statements, the Democrat-Gazette reported more details of AT&T's presence at those parties: