AT&T, a corporate sponsor for “American Idol,” provided supporters of Kris Allen free tutorials on text messaging their votes, detractors of the practice said.
Allen won the singing competition last week.
News reports say fans of runner-up Adam Lambert have complained in online forums that AT&T participated in two “AI” viewing parties in Allen’s native Arkansas and showed people how to power text, that is, send 10 or more text messages by pressing a single button.
The phone company did not, however, offer such services to Lambert’s followers, critics complained.
“In Arkansas, we were invited to attend the local watch parties organized by the community,” an AT&T spokesman said in a statement issued to The Times.
“A few local employees brought a small number of demo phones with them and provided texting tutorials to those who were interested.”
The newspaper said officials of Fox Broadcasting, which airs the show, declined to discuss the matter.
