Reply #33: FOX and Idol deny manipulating the vote :

[BlueJessamine]

http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/entertainment_tv_tvblog/2009/05/american-idol-was-there-a-backlash-against-the-judges.html

Fox told The Times that it had not manipulated the vote and that America had spoken. But Fox and "Idol" weren't offering details about how the vote broke down, so those conspiracy theories will proliferate.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/25/arts/television/25idol.html

Mr. Darnell said that the results were not manipulated, and that Fox and the producers had no preferences regarding the winner. “There are no conspiracies, and there is no plot,” he said. “We’re happy to have America tell us who the winner is. And they have always gotten it right.”

Also from the NYT's link above:

38 million votes?

The Fox affiliate in Little Rock, Ark., reported on Wednesday that “an extraordinary number of votes” — 38 million in some reports — came from Arkansas, a state with a population of less than 3 million. That detail quickly made its way around the Internet. The station later retracted that news, saying that it was “based on incorrect information provided to one of our reporters.”