Way To Go! You're The 'Person Of The Year'

Time Magazine Gives Its Annual Honor To The Citizens Of Digital Democracy

(AP)  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 George W. 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.

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.

It was not the first time the magazine went away from naming an actual person for its "Person of the Year." In 1966, the 25-and-under generation was cited; in 1975, American women were named; and in 1982, the computer was chosen.

"I always love it when it's a person — and it is a person, not a computer or something like that," Stengel said. "We just felt there wasn't a single person who embodied this phenomenon."

Last year's winners were Bill and Melinda Gates and rock star Bono, who were cited for their charitable work and activism aimed at reducing global poverty and improving world health.

[nynative1340]

...guess I spoke too soon. Bushrocks1 is alive and still sick as ever. He posted about six times already this AM on the Powell topic...

[nynative1340]

Thanks, Melbournedav. With that I think I'll get a couple hours sleep before I have to face another tough day at work. You'd think that a guy with 28 years in the military and another 20+ in civilian industry could retire. But no, Reagan made sure of that.

Search on 'usfspa' or visit
www.vetsforjustice.com
to learn how the Reagan administration scr*ewed the U.S. military, and none of the cowards in congress since then have had the courage to "fix it."

[nynative1340]

You're right, FeelFree1. I haven't seen SHURCH4TRUTH around for awhile either. Maybe he/she and bushrocks1 cancelled each other out.

[janish64]

This is no big surprise - Time (and Newsweek, as well as WaPo, NYT, etc..) have been outpaced by the internet for quite some time. They are letting junior grade gaggles of reporters presen copy/paste opinion columns as "news", the reporting standards have been dismal since the internet surge, they underestimate their readers, and don't even know HOW to reach them anymore. This is such a laughable "yay everyone" year end piece, I almost pity them.


Seriously - this quote is a real PEARL, coming from the NGIC:

"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."

[feelfree1]

nynative1340,

Good work!

But I still think that there was more than meets the eye going on with 'SHURCH4TRUTH'.

[melbournedav]

NYNative,,,,You are my hero. You summed it up quite well. Idiot conservative have lost their ability to think on their own They go through life quoting fat dimwits like Hush Bimbo or Sean Hasbenity. They just love to misquote because they want to be just like Hush.

Time's choise for person of the year just pinpoints a problem the whole world has. There are no more true leaders who strive to make this world a better place to live. It seems there are only quasi leaders who have been shifty enough to get idiots to vote for them. These people like Bushlite, Cheney, Rumsfied, Castro, Hussain, Iraq's president and North Korea's dictator care only about taking care of themselves. Take a good hard look at the world and you'll see what I mean.

[nynative1340]

...but I decline the honor. The friggin computer and internet have made my job harder, not easier.

[nynative1340]

Well, FeelFree1, SHURCH4TRUTH would probably thank you for the thought. But clicking 'report this comment' on about 20 of bushrocks1's posts got the individual posts removed; however, clicking on 'Contact Us' at the bottom of this page, stating the problem, and insisting they cancel his login did the trick. After complaining about so many of his annoying posts, I didn't think they would cancel him, but thankfully they did. I suspect a lot of people complained.

[bobgee_1999]

Actually, mrn10ct1, you're wrong twice. That wasn't this year and you still got the quote wrong (I know, because I have it on my computer to listen to every time time idiot misquotes it). He said he "took the initiative in creating the internet," which, of course, was a bit of a statement no matter how you slice it. Probably he should have said "I took the initiative in introducing the High Performance Computing Act, thus making it easier for know-nothings like mrn10ct1 to access the internet and endlessly misquote me." Yeah, that probably would have worked. Anyway, how far back does the right to quote stupid statements go? Because I have several dozen by Dan Quayle I haven't had occasion to use in a while. But ok, the fact that our current "president" has us involved in an unwinnable global crusade against a faceless, nameless enemy might be more important.

[feelfree1]

If I had to pick 1 person in particular to thank, I think that it would have to be 'SHURCH4TRUTH', who may have, somehow, disabled the 'BUSHROCKS1' spam-bot.

If so, this was a tremendous public service!

Very, very well done!