As we’ve all seen by now, the editors of Time magazine revealed that the Person of the Year is “You.” Well, not of all of you — just those of you who have added content to the Internet. It is ironic and sad that “You” has been awarded this distinction for “founding and framing the new digital democracy web,” at a historical moment in which our democracy seems a little frayed. (See “Elections,” 2000, 2004; and “Domestic Spying”; and “Ghost Prisons”; and “Torture”.)
According to Time, when choosing the Person of the Year, “Editors are asked to choose the person or thing that had the greatest impact on the news, for good or ill; guidelines that leave them no choice but to select a newsworthy — not necessarily praiseworthy — cover subject.”
Historically, Time has lived up to this directive. It has acknowledged that sometimes those who have the greatest impact on the news are people who challenge U.S. values and threaten our security. In 1938, the magazine picked Hitler. Stalin got it twice, in 1939 and 1942. Ayatollah Khomeini was given the award in 1979.
It’s worth noting, however, that since September 11, the award has increasingly forfeited its pledge to pick subjects “for good or ill” in favor patriotic icons (2001, Rudolph Giuliani; 2003, The American Soldier; 2004, George W. Bush) and filibusters (2002, The Whistleblowers; 2005, Bono, Melinda and Bill Gates).
One need not be an insider to know that when Time editors gathered this fall to brainstorm for candidates, the most qualified options were hardly “good news” stories — Iraq, anyone? (Oh, right, too obvious.)
No matter how you look at it, this year was an especially trying one for our nation. The chaos in Iraq reached a crescendo, overwhelming the absurd “we’re winning” blather emanating from the White House. As our troop casualties in Iraq neared the 3,000 mark, Taliban and Al Qaeda fighters launched counter-offensives (SUBSCRIPTION ONLY) in Afghanistan while Islamic fundamentalists took power in Somalia.
Diplomatically, we witnessed the collateral damage of a weakened superpower.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad spurned the International Atomic Energy Agency and began uranium enrichment. On December 17 he announced Iran’s plans to expand its program and his country’s willingness “to give its valuable experiences and achievements in peaceful nuclear technology to the countries of the region.” These efforts were by interrupted by periodic calls for Israel to be “wiped off the map.”
In October North Korea joined the nuclear club. In September Hugo Chavez came to New York and mocked our president on our own soil. He elicited gasps from the UN assembly when he said, referring to Bush’s UN speech the day before, “Yesterday the devil came here. Right here. And it smells of sulfur still today.” Like it or not, this year the “greatest impact on the news” came from this hydra that threatens American power, prestige, and economic stability. Still, the editors of Time would have us believe that this is less consequential than the novelty of Internet users who “mash up 50 Cent’s vocals with Queen’s instrumentals,” and “turn on a computer and make a movie starring a pet iguana.”
Instead of living up to the high mandate of its own editorial policy, Time responded with a non-choice, awarding the Person of the Year to an abstraction. By giving the award to “You,” it effectively gave the award to no one. In dong so, it has insulted its readers with the assumption that they are too vain and gullible to know the difference.
Christian Vachon was a CJR intern.