Time Magazine Person of the Year Watch: Flap and All of US
In this photo released by Time, Inc., in New York, Saturday, Dec. 16, 2006, the Dec. 25, 2006 “Person of the Year” issue proclaims that “You” are Time Magazine’s “Person of the Year.” Time, citing the shift from institutions to individuals as part of the criteria for selecting their “Person of the Year,” has named anyone using or creating content on the World Wide Web as their 2006 winner.
AP: Time Magazine’s Person of the Year: You
Congratulations! You are the Time magazine “Person of the Year.”
The annual honor for 2006 went to each and every one of us, as Time cited the shift from institutions to individuals – citizens of the new digital democracy, as the magazine put it. The winners this year were anyone using or creating content on the World Wide Web.
“If you choose an individual, you have to justify how that person affected millions of people,” said Richard Stengel, who took over as Time’s managing editor earlier this year. “But if you choose millions of people, you don’t have to justify it to anyone.”
The magazine did cite 26 “People Who Mattered,” from North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il to Pope Benedict XVI to the troika of President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.
And Stengel said if the magazine had decided to go with an individual, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was the likely choice. “It just felt to me a little off selecting him,” Stengel said.
Indeed……..The blogosphere and internet is much more significant than Ahmadinejad or Kim Jong-Il.
In fact, the blogosphere and internet media may well be those dictators downfall.
Thanks Time Magazine! You finally got ONE RIGHT!
Captain Ed says Time’s Award for this year was a Suck-Up Version.
At least, however, they made a decision and selected someone. The entire point of a Person of the Year is to acknowledge that some people play larger roles in history. Naming all of us may make us feel good about our anonymity, but in the end it’s either pandering to millions of readers or a refusal to take a stand on anyone. Choosing everyone is an abdication on the entire purpose of the project.
Even Salon did better than that — but not by much. In a year of so much turmoil and such electoral drama, they selected S. R. Sidarth, the opposition researcher for James Webb that got himself notoriety by being the target of George Allen’s weird “macaca” moment. It’s a silly selection by an unserious publication, perhaps much more demonstrative of Salon than it could possibly be of 2006.
Flap thinks Ed needs to chill out. After all this is time Magazine, what do you expect – something profound? Or accurate?
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