Hello, my name is Shawn. This is where I put things. This site has been active since 2002. A lot has changed since then but basically I'm still writing ridiculous articles about ridiculous things. You can also look at my I think I found the source of the “More people vote for American Idol than for the president” myth. The headline of this Guardian article is “American Idol outvotes the president”. Their basis for this headline? Fox counted more votes for American Idol’s final round (which took place in 2006) than Ronald Reagan received in the 1984 presidential election. Yes, that’s as absurd a comparison as it sounds. That’s what’s commonly referred to as cherry picking. Not to even get started on the inflated nature of Idol votes.
Their copy of the Guinness Book of World Records must be a bit old too. They claim Reagan received the most votes of any US presidential winner is history. Yet, oh gee, only 2 years ago both Bush and Kerry got more votes each than Reagan did in ‘84. Their claim could not possibly be more wrong. Yet that headline got out there and people are still repeating it as fact.
Too bad I didn’t catch this 8 months ago when the article came out.