Playing the race card?
 

If Rueben Studdard won American Idol 2, then WHY is Clay Aiken on the cover of Rolling Stone and why is he getting as much, if not more, press as Rueben? What's the point of having a competition if the winner doesn't get the proper recognition? Yeah I know it was close, but competitions aren't about who's close, they're about who WINS. Now I'm now making any accusations as far as race goes, but it makes you wonder if Clay had won would Reuben be on the cover of Rolling Stone? Would he be getting as much press? Makes ya go "hmmm..."

Re: Playing the race card?
 

Actually even if Clay did win, I'm sure Rueben would still get that kind of publicity. After all look at how Justin blew up after Kelly won during the previous season. I didn't really matter which won because both "made it."

I don't feel race is an issue here...

I don't think race is an issue, but I do think it's interesting that in the first season Justin didn't get as much attention as Kelly did. I didn't see him on the cover of Rolling Stone? Then again, I don't read that magazine, so I may have missed it! :)

Just because Ruben won the AI title doesn't mean Rolling Stone has an obligation to put him on the cover.

Agreed... maybe ruben just didn't have the time to do a photo shoot and what not with R.S. And since Clay has a large fan base, as awkward looking as he might be, Rolling Stone probably found that interesting.

Actually, I think RS came out and said they chose Clay because he had more charisma and was more open to talking about his life.

why does everything have to be about race?

it makes me crazy that if one person is white and another is black it's automatically race.

no...clay fits more in with the rolling stone audience.

don't make everything about race, it weakens the argument.

and what does it really matter anyway?????

That's kind of what I was thinking...how often does RS have African American artists on the cover, anyway? I don't read the mag anymore, so I don't really know....

I'm thinking this had more to do with plain ol' album sales...Ruben's numbers were no chopped liver-he kicked butt, but Clay's were higher...who knows.

Re: Playing the race card?
 

Because Clay is skinny and Rueben isn't. In an age when a fair number of "us" have graced the cover of Rolling Stone lately, I really doubt that this has anything to do with the race of the persons involved.

Re: Re: Playing the race card?
 

I agree. I wasn't going to play the race card, I was going to play the looks card. Clay is more photogenic, more suited to be on the cover of a magazine.

Great, now we're playing the weight card.

I'm not playing any kind of "card" LeslieAGD -- I'm stating what is a perceived "fact" in image based marketing campaigns.

Besides, the only cards I can play are "UNO" cards. ;)

Um, well, it sort of makes me mad that there seems to be this big to-do about how Rueben may not have "really" won. I keep hearing all this stuff about how people voting for Rueben were able to get through tons of times, and people who wanted to vote for Clay couldn't. My stepdad keeps going on and on about this, it's not fair, yada yada yada, Clay should've won, yada yada yada. But you know what? It's over, folks. Rueben won. He's damn good. Now let's give it a rest.

OK, I'm done. :)

I was using that term facetiously. Honestly, the reason people CAN play cards (be it race, gender, weight, whatever) is because there's historically been an issue there.

I think it's been proven (or at least claimed that it's been proven by every magazine in existence) that fat people do not sell magazines.