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The Josh Campaignby Donna Reynolds -- 05/05/2003
View Printable version of this article I received a lot of email after my article "The Marine has Landed -In the Final Four." Most people agreed with me but I did hear from a few people who were irate and defensive. Hey, we are all entitled to our express our opinion and the great thing about America is that we have the right to do so. But that is not why I am writing tonight. A concerned fan named Judy sent me an email today with a link to a website that has been set up to solicit votes for Josh Gracin. I will not include the link, as I do not want to further publicize this site. What I want to do is alert fans of Ruben, Clay, and Kimberley as to what is happening so that they can do whatever they have to do to counteract The Josh Campaign. I also want to let Josh know what is going on in his name. The site is encouraging people to recruit votes for Josh. Now this is not new. Clay's fans have been doing this for months (indeed, see And the Winner Is…, posted earlier today). What is different about this site is the method these people are using to get these votes. Particularly disturbing is the fact that they don't care whether the people they are recruiting are even watching the show. The site reads: "Ask your friends and family members who aren't already voting to call! If you recruited callers for this past Tuesday, ask them to please vote-vote-vote again and, if possible, double last Tuesday's vote total. They don't even have to watch the show if they don't want to. In fact, some are so tired of Simon's rudeness, they REFUSE to watch! Just tell them that you will contact them next Tuesday just before the show ends and provide them with Josh's voting phone number. Pretty simple, no?"The site continues: "Just think, for every 10 people that we recruit and get to make at least 50 calls each, that's an extra 500+ votes. Better yet, ask them to joing (sic) the 10-4-2 team. In other words, 10 new callers dialing '4' 2 hours straight. That's a HUGE commitment, but Josh is worth it, right?"What this means, then, is that people who are not watching the show and who could care less are voting for Josh as a favor to a friend. If they are successful again this week, the entire competition will become a farce. We have seen how effective their campaign was last week and their recruiting efforts are continuing. They are getting stronger by the day. This is so patently unfair to the other contestants and to fans who are sincerely voting for their favorite. More importantly, it is unfair to Josh. If he wins, his "title" will be meaningless. In addition, it would probably be the end of American Idol, at least as we know it. There is not much more to say. The challenge now is for fans of Clay, Kim, and Ruben to come up with some kind of strategy to counteract this campaign. They have worked hard and deserve their spots in the top four. I believe that Josh is an honorable man and would not want to win under these circumstances. The only thing he can do now is to ask these people to stop. They might not listen but at least he could retain his integrity. Otherwise, this is going to be a fiasco. The gloves are off now. It's time to get serious. The marine has indeed landed. Donna Reynolds is a freelance writer and technical writer from Syracuse, NY. You can e-mail her at dlrturtle@earthlink.net. Be sure to sign up for the RealityNewsOnline/FoxesOnIdol e-mail update so you can stay informed about new articles on both sites! For all of the RealityNewsOnline articles about this show, check out the American Idol page. For more news about reality TV, be sure to check SirLinksALot! View Printable version of this article
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