Posted by The National Ledger on June 29, 2010 at 04:58:47:
Oprah Voting Scandal - Network Investigating Vote Rigging Charge
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By Jessica Warren
Jun 26, 2010
A scandal over voting for a new show on the Oprah Winfrey network has emerged as reports have questioned if the votes for "Search for the Next TV Star" are rigged. Fox News runs a headline: "Did Oprah Winfrey's Network Inflate Vote for a Single Contestant?"
Oprah Voting Scandal - Network Investigating Vote Rigging Charge.
The issue appears to have been completely manipulated. For the contest, according to the online votes, the two top contenders were Dr. Phyllis Tucker-Wicks, a Florida college professor, and Zach Anner, a 25-year-old from Austin.
Tucker-Wicks is African American who wants to reveal the "days and lives of a teacher" in a reality show, and Zach Anner is white and restricted to a wheelchair because of cerebral palsy and is pitching "a travel show for people who never thought they could travel."
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Both were receiving heavy votes.
The issue was an alleged surge of votes to Tucker-Wicks. As whispers online began to question the supposed "vote-rigging" at the same time a batch of possible automated queries pushed the phrase "Oprah rigs contest in favor of African American" to the number one most-searched term online.
The search phrase was manipulated to give the appearance that the online buzz was an inquiry to see if the contest was indeed rigged.
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The show says it will investigate and the network has ensured the fans that all votes will be screened to ensure legitimacy of voting results.
In response, OWN's spokesperson said: "No contestant has been favored in this competition. The rules were designed to ensure that it is run fairly and in an unbiased manner," adding all votes will go through double verification check.
Anner is currently leading with 8.3 million votes while Tucker-Wicks is close on his tail with 6.6 million.
Voting will end on July 3.
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