I voted for Sanjaya and it's Howard Stern's fault

I've been working an evening job to bring in some cash, and when I turned on Howard 100 tonight at 10:30 after my shift ended, I saw that on the second line of the display on my radio, underneath "Howard Stern Show," it said "Vote for Sanjaya 866-436-5708." Here on the west coast American Idol ends at nine, meaning viewers can vote until 11p, so I dialed the number and ended up voting five times in the parking lot before driving home.

Without even watching the show, knowing nothing about the other performers/contestants. Apparently Sanjaya actually did ok tonight.

I'm not sure when the Sanjaya movement began, but a few weeks ago Howard brought up the web site VoteForTheWorst.com on the air and interviewed the founder of the site on the show. Howard was digging what the guy was doing and has stated several times since then that he thinks it's great to destroy something, meaning the show American Idol -- to take part in such a disruption and distortion of what the show means as to make it worthless as a concept.

I have to agree the idea is hilarious. Sanjaya isn't the worst I've heard, but there is no way he is the best singer on that show right now. Just the fact that he made it into the top 10 and will be a part of the forthcoming American Idol live tour is sweet justice. Last week, even Simon gave up criticizing Sanjaya's performances because he knows it's useless, calling his performance "brilliant."

Of course all of this Sanjaya mania isn't due to Howard Stern alone, but Howard's name is being mentioned in connection with it. The publicity certainly can't hurt. Is this the first true test of the power of satellite radio? Is the fact that this is the first true test of such power a sad commentary on what millions of Americans are focused on? Am I actually typing this?