Time Magazine's Person of the Year

Oh what an honor. I am Time Magazine's Person of the Year.

Don't feel disappointed. You are also chosen. As My Way News reported 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.

I certainly do that.

"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."

Well a lot of the discussion I am reading and hearing on TV seems to indicate people think you copped out with this choice.

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.

I am happy you did not select that nutcase.

The 2006 "Person of the Year" package hits newsstands Monday. The cover shows a white keyboard with a mirror for a computer screen where buyers can see their reflection.

PJM blogged For decades it was “Man of the Year.” Once it was “Women of the Year.” Then gender bit the dust and it was “Person of the Year.” This morphed, as morph it must, into “Group of the Year.” But more and more it was a case of, choose what they would, a huge portion of the public would think, “Those bozos at Time, they’re crazy.” Result? This year Time has throw up its hands and made the “Person of the Year” [you] .. or me… or, well, just anybody. This must mark the ultimate in an orgy of diversity. Now that You know, You can cancel Your subscription to Time. What? You’re not a doctor, dentist, or podiatrist? In that case, You can forget about it.

Blue Crab blogged Well, obviously, anyone reading these words I wrote is an above average, intelligent and downright good-looking person. As is, modestly, your humble host. But seriously, there has been a huge change in the world due to the internet. The repercussions of that change have yet to be fully understood. I think Time, while dodging a tricky call that would have brought them some serious abuse (see the link), may be on to something whether they meant it to be so or not. The world is changing. One pixel at a time.

CQ blogged I'm not much of a fan of the Time Magazine Person of the Year fuss. They usually do a decent job of picking someone significant enough to qualify, but often miss the best choices. Of course, sometimes they completely misfire, such as in 1982 when they selected the computer, or in 1988 when they chose "Endangered Earth". Of late, they have tended to select choices that within a few years makes readers say, "Who?" Those examples came in 1996 (David Ho), 1997 (Andy Grove), 1999 (Jeffrey Bezos), and one complete suck-up choice in 1991 (Ted Turner). This year, they have made their second complete suck-up choice ... everyone:

JihadWatch blogged Robert Spencer chosen Time Magazine's Person of the Year! Uh, along with a few billion other people, including Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Leon Spinks, Anna Nicole Smith, Magdi Allam, Britney Spears, Anjum Chaudri, Margaret Thatcher, Jeffrey Imm, Tammy Bruce, Twostellas, Omar Bakri, Anthony Braxton, Brigitte Gabriel, Evan Parker, Ban Ki-moon, Yanni, Bernard Lewis, that friendly Pakistani guy who runs the grocery store around the corner from here, and, of course, you. This monumental bit of silliness on Time's part is just another illustration of the West's failure of will. We have no longer any standards, any distinctions, any excellence, because we are pathologically afraid of branding anyone a failure.

Don Surber blogged I am sure this will be controversial. A generation ago, Time picked the computer as its Man of the Year in 1982. Many people thought a better choice would have been Pope John Paul II, Ronald Reagan or Lech Walesa. Some will see this year's choice as a punt. And Stengel said if Time picked one person it likely would have been Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. I like the choice. Technology can liberate people, which is why so many regimes are trying to keep the lid on the Internet as if it were Pandora's box. Most of the technology is used for crap: baseball fantasy leagues, crotch shots of celebrities and spam, spam, spam. But like Pandora's box, the Internet also unleashes upon the world hope.

Jim Lynch blogged I Didn’t Even Know I Was in the Running

AllahPundit blogged A fine choice, if perhaps a bit obvious.

BlogPI blogged Are we this good or is Time just that predictable? On October 9, the day Google announced its acquisition of YouTube, we wrote:

[I]t’s only been about 10 months since Time Magazine declined to choose an individual for its much-devalued Person of the Year award, so it only stands to reason they’re back in the hunt. It’s also been nearly a decade since Time named someone (or thing) from the tech industry — Jeff Bezos in 1999 — and more than 20 years since they named the PC its “Machine of the Year.” Also, it’s not an election year, so it won’t be the winner of the presidential election. It’s time for another gimmick!