Gail Berman’s American Idol Delusion

Posted January 18, 2005, 12:40 p.m.

According to Gail Berman, head of Fox’s entertainment division, ratings for American Idol are expected to be lower this season (Reuters via Yahoo! News [no longer available]).

Berman says this is a natural consequence of the show’s age—it being in the fourth season and all. I say, bull.

American Idol will have lower ratings this year (if, in fact, it does) for one simple reason: The voting system is flawed, and mediocre/annoying singers excel while the great ones are kicked off early. People like me are tired of watching something so antithetical to reality.

Cases-in-point:

Ruben, who was good, beat Clay, who was much better. Ruben’s win was the first major sign that something was amiss in the American Idol universe.
That Fantasia even made it into the top 10 last season is proof enough; that she ultimately won is nothing short of reprehensible. We’ve already had one Macy Gray, enough already.
George Huff and La Toya London were kicked off early in the last season, despite being—hands-down—the two best singers in the competition.
The other men in last season’s top 10—John Stevens and John Peter Lewis—didn’t deserve to be there at all, but inexplicably lasted longer than notably better contestants.

I might watch American Idol now-and-then this season, but I’m not going to invest any emotion or effort or time into it if the producers cannot develop a voting system that is fair and keeps the good contestants in the game. Fantasia? Come on now, be serious.

Scott Bradford has been putting his opinions on his website since 1995—before most people knew what a website was. He has been a professional web developer in the public- and private-sector for over twenty years. He is an independent constitutional conservative who believes in human rights and limited government, and a Catholic Christian whose beliefs are summarized in the Nicene Creed. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Public Administration from George Mason University. He loves Pink Floyd and can play the bass guitar . . . sort-of. He’s a husband, pet lover, amateur radio operator, and classic AMC/Jeep enthusiast.

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Your money does not cause my poverty. Refusal to believe this is at the bottom of most bad economic thinking.

Left entirely to men, the church ought to have perished at many points in her long history.

For he will render to every man according to his works: to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life. . . .

Nothing is easier than to falsify the past. Lifeless instruction will do it. If you rob it of vitality, stiffen it with pedantry, sophisticate it with argument, chill it with unsympathetic comment, you render it as dead as any academic exercise.

We are punished by our sins not for them.

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You can’t use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have.

The passions are not evil but they are stupid. They need a teacher.

The good repent on knowing their sin; the evil become angry when discovered.

Computers make very fast, very accurate mistakes.

Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee; blessed art thou amongst women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen

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Marriage now tends to be viewed as a form of mere emotional satisfaction that can be constructed in any way or modified at will. But the indispensable contribution of marriage to society transcends the feelings and momentary needs of the couple.

I’ve lived, Sir, a long time, and the longer I live, the more convincing Proofs I see of this Truth: That God governs in the Affairs of Men.

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The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the convinced Communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction and the distinction between true and false no longer exist.

What you’re seeing and what you’re reading is not what’s happening,

An idea that is not dangerous is not worthy of being called an idea at all.