TIME’s Person of the Year panel took place today. Brian Williams, Jesse Eisenberg, Mario Batali, Grover Norquist, Anita Hill and Seth Meyers debated who the 2011 Person of the Year should with TIME’s managing editor, Rick Stengel. There was much debate about whether Steve Jobs would be the first person no longer alive to become TIME’s Person of the Year.
Some of the panelists choices for POY:
• Brian Williams: Steve Jobs: “One guy, who changed our world, and I said to Seth Meyers as we walked across 6th Ave, ‘Just look with me on this one block walk at how he changed the world around us. Look at how he changed the world.’ Not only did he change the world, but he gave us that spirit again that something was possible that you could look at a piece of plastic or glass and move your finger – that’s outlandish. You could make things bigger or smaller like that. ‘Oh the places you’ll go’ and oh the way you will change forever the music and television industries. So may he rest in peace, Steve Jobs, and the spirit he represents, are my nominee for Person of the Year.”
• Jesse Eisenberg: The Populists: ““Well first of all, I think it’s a wonderful idea and obviously there’s no dispute that Steve Jobs’ impact has been monumental. It seems to me if it’s this year, with Steve Jobs, he was not my selection because I thought about him and it felt kind of like a lifetime achievement honor.”
• Seth Meyers: Angry People
• Anita Hill: Social Justice Movement, Esraa Abdel Fatah, Elizabeth Warren: “Problem I have with the Steve Jobs is I don’t feel there was a generosity of spirit. It was something he wanted to spread and was really sort of about him and seemed to be what drove him… what I’d like to see more of is a sense of more of a democratic spirit that other people can do same thing that I’m doing and not just doing the things they envision.”
• Grover Norquist: Mohamed Bouazizi
• Mario Batali: Steve Jobs, Michael Pollen or The Bankers: “I like Steve Jobs I think he did a really good job, changing the way people behave.”
Direct link to the video via TIME here.
Related articles:
Mark Zuckerberg deserves to be TIME Magazine’s ‘Person of the Year,’ but Steve Jobs never has? – December 16, 2010
TIME Magazine’s Person of the Year: Mark Zuckerberg – 1, Steve Jobs – 0? – December 16, 2010
