Authors call Simon Cowell America's "biggest TV bully"

Simon is truthful and honest. This is not karaoke although 3/4ths of the contestants think it is. It is a waste of the judges time when these mediocre (if that even) destroy a good song and then get mad when they are told how they really sound. Good for Simon, keep up the good work. Honesty is and always will be the best policy. No use letting someone think they are something they have proven they are not.

Your television is not a babysitter; nor is capable of making parenting decisions. I'm sorry if your salesperson didn't indicate as much. One could easily argue that too much coddling is a key component in watching an Idol wannabe crash upon the shores of emotional instability when faced with objectivity (that by your interpretation is too harsh). All creatures in the animal kingdom are born with defense mechanisms. They pick up others through experience and trial-and-error. When an animal makes a poor decision or doesn't have the ability to cope in the wild, we call what happens natural selection. When a human goes through the same experience we judge the obstacle as too hard or unfair. The bottom line is that nothing says that life has to be fair or easy or just. The sooner a person learns that lesson the closer he/she is towards mitigating life's unfairness.

P.S. Your writing skills are about as good as the average Idol contestant. Is that how you landed this gig?

i don't blame simon or the other judge's myself i think it's funny when someone start's to sing and all the judge's are laughing at them and they just keep on singing don't you think if it was you and they was laughing at you wouldn't you be smart enough to stop i sure would and i sure wouldn't ask them to let me try another song that's just plain stupid and i'd rather have someone tell me the truth like simon does and not sugar coat it and say keep on working on your singing and you'll get better i feel if there stupid enough to show up and try out and suck and act like some of them do they need to be made fun of that's my opinion

Ever think that AI is just "sharing the pain" of their auditions? They are a singing contest show yet thousands of people that know they can't sing show up and want to try out and subjecting various people to hours on end of horrible vocals.

Can you imagine how the people behind the scenes that have to listen to all the auditions that we don't see must have horrendous headaches by the end of the day? I think that Tylenol would be a great sponsor for AI.

For all the weirdos and tone deaf auditions we do see you know there must have been hundreds if not thousands of the same that there wasn't time for. Perhaps the unnamed peons that we never see just past the stinkers along to the "celebrity judges" to allow them to feel a little of their pain.

If this show's total purpose was only about finding the best singer, these people would be weeded out in pre-screening. But that isn't the point. Fox, S P & R all want to have them come in so they can insult them, when they really don't have to. For that I find it shameful they insist on insulting people for ratings. I also find it shameful you people help them out by watching. What does that say about you.

It's not about these people needing to have s P & R spare them any further disappointment as they head towards a singing career. These people KNOW they can't sing. They go there trying to get on tv being bad, since they know they aren't good. Fox plays into it by putting them on. Why because so many of you are willing to sit down and watch it. Thankfully I can find something else to do. I won't help them with it. I just wish you guys wouldn't either. But I am not disillusioned.

There are far worse qualities to have than being overly harsh and honest.

I dont feel so sorry for these people who cant sing, I feel like they know and are wishing upon a star that noone will notice that they cant sing and give them a chance. That would work if we were all deaf and blind!Families should stop encouraging tone deaf family members

Ian is so pathetic. He reminds me of Pee Wee Herman. He can not sing for the heck of it.He knows he cant sing!

Someone get Larry some tampons. I think hes out

------------------

HA!

DUH!

-----------------

Uh, this is a COMMENTARY section. If you don't have anything intelligent to say, or can't figure out how to use apostrophes or proper capitalization, expect to get made fun of. DUH!