Ok, so “American Idol raised Millions for charity”

Mainstream media touted the fact that “Television singing talent show ‘American Idol’ proved its clout as a U.S. cultural phenomenon by raising more than $30 million for young people in Africa and the United States."

To wax pessimistic for a moment, Fox was no doubt happy with its $5 million “charitable” investment as the show's contestants received more than 70 million votes -- a new record and almost double the previous week's 38 million.

Fox’s had owner pledged $5 million to the effort, but some wondered why the company that owns one of the must lucrative franchises in television history couldn’t have opened its wallet a bit more. After all, given the price of commercials on “American Idol” ($745,000 for 30 seconds), it was in actuality donating the equivalent of less than five minutes of advertising time, even as it implored viewers to give generously.

Ok, what if American Idol had asked viewers to donate just $1 for every vote they cast, Idol would have raised $70 million from viewers alone.

While one must applaud ‘American Idol’ raisng $30 million for charity, Jerry Lewis Telethon, a dinosaur compared to American Idol’s high-tech glitz and celebrity star-power, last year raised over $61 million, with a fraction of Idol’s self-promoting hype.

So while Idol Gives Back did some good for poor children, the main cause it championed was American Idol.

Hopefully the positive accomplished will ourweight the above negtaives via the funding that does indeed reach the aid organizations mentioned: Save the Children, UNICEF, Malaria No More, The Global Fund and Nothing But Nets in Africa and poverty-hit areas of the United States.