“It’s the end of the year, the time when news organizations start compiling lists: top 10 movies or songs of the year, top 10 news stories of the year, and of course, a perennial favorite, TIME Magazine’s Person of the Year,” Sterling Wong reports for Minyanville.
“Before the list was announced, there had been speculation that former Apple CEO Steve Jobs, who passed away in October, might become the first person to be given this honor posthumously,” Wong reports. “A panel of TIME magazine experts had spoken about the possibility of nominating Jobs at a discussion in November. Panelist Brian Williams, host of Comcast subsidiary NBC’s Nightly News, said, ‘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 glass or plastic and move your finger, that’s outlandish… may he rest in peace.'”
Wong reports, “Ultimately though, the panel of experts does not decide on the magazine’s Person of the Year. TIME’s editors have anointed the Protestor as its Person of the Year, after the regime-toppling Arab Spring that occurred in Tunisia, Egypt, and other parts of the Middle East, as well as the Occupy Wall Street movement… Placing second behind those at Tahrir Square and Occupy emcampments is congressional Republican Paul Ryan, who burst into national prominence with his austere budget plan. And while Steve Jobs was snubbed as Person of the Year, his successor Tim Cook was named as one of TIME’s people who matter.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Since 2001, when they totally blew it by not naming Osama bin Laden, Time Magazine‘s so-called “Person of the Year” has been slightly less meaningful than the Nobel Peace Prize.
Thanks to OWS, port workers in Oakland – no doubt happy to have a job – lost a day of wages when protesters sparked a shutdown. In New York, a restaurant that struggled through months of protesters and police barricades closed their doors, throwing 90 people out of work. OWS has accomplished *nothing* positive. But the media continues to sing their praises.
As to Time Magazine (are they still publishing?) – Stick a fork in them. They’re done.
Frankly MDN – you are full of it and so are many of the commentators here. For all my admiration for Steve Jobs, I think Time’s choice is spot on.
This past year we have had popular protest movements that have resulted in the fall of governments in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya. Protesters are causing trouble for the Syrian regime and may even result in bringing that regime down. And Syria is not the only Arab country that looks shaky.
It isn’t just Arabs. We’ve had popular protests in Greece and Italy which are destabilizing governments there. It is too early to tell if the protests in Russia against Putin will have any lasting effect but this is the first time in a very long while that Putin has appeared less than firmly in control. And of course you have your Occupy Wall Street protests back home.
It does not matter if you agree or disagree with the motives behind these protests but you cannot deny that they are having a huge impact on our world. Far more than any tech CEO did.
– HCE
screw you
Reading these comments is quite chilling, if you take them as a reflection of, not just Apple fanboys, but indicative of Western gadget freaks – and you’d have to be a gadget freak to read and comment on this site. These comments, that rail against Jobs not being Times pick for Person of the Year are based on the concept that a guy who makes gadgets for you, and made your life easier, ranks higher than the thousands of enslaved brave men and women fighting for freedom. 2011 has been an amazing year, equivalent to the fall of the Berlin Wall and Iron Curtain (I wonder how many of you were alive or mature when that happened). Perhaps these comments are indicative of the self-absorbed greed that characterises all fanboys, even those of other gadgets – Android, game consoles. The world is like the Titanic heading towards an iceburg and we’re playing with our gadgets. Maybe our gadgets are an alcohol and all consuming distraction that numbs out the pain of the carnage that is going on out there, to ignore that Steve’s pile of cash – larger than the US Treasury – which could have solved world hunger – is because Steve chose to manufacture your gadgets in China, rather than giving manufacturing jobs to Californians – and knowing that Apple fanboys can’t care less about the workers in China, many living on the verge of suicide, so that you can buy Apple gear at anti-competitive prices, with profit margins at unconscionable levels compared to the rest of the industry – because Fanboys don’t care as long as they get to play with Steve’s toys. There’s a story in Steve Jobs’ biography where he rejected Jesus Christ when he saw a picture of starving children, and he couldn’t follow a God that would allow that. The irony is that over his lifetime he built a stash of money, even larger than the US Treasury, which could have gone a large way to eradicating world hunger. If there is a God, can you imagine Steve Jobs coming before him, and answering for first rejecting God for accusing God as the one who caused world hunger, and then Steve himself having had the cash resources to do something about it, and never having done so. There are larger things going on in the world that our gadgets, and these comments are how near the Empire is to being overrun. There is no more freedom-spirit in the people any more. They’re obsessed with circuses and games and Apple toys, and they’re cheering for the guy who gives them their toys, not caring a stuff for the modern-day patriots fighting in the streets for freedom. Remember, the youths in Syria, Egypt, Tunisia, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia have read stories of the U.S. on the internet, and are fighting for that freedom that was won in revolution of 1776 – and the guys in the U.S. are playing with gadgets, and pouting that the gadget guy didn’t get TIME’s prize. I can imagine the Mac fanboys saying Pfft … and going back to thumbing your iPad.
The problem is that TIME lumped the Occupy idiots in with the rest of “The Protesters” thereby turning their choice into a joke while severely diminishing the real protesters’ efforts. In the U.S., the occupiers are regarded by most as either privileged kids reenacting some conception of the 1960s without a cause and/or as severely undereducated bums looking for a free lunch. TIME blew it again.
Next year these as asswipes will name ‘people’ Person of the Year.
It’s unfortunate to see that in general, the world’s stereotypical view of Americans as being self-centered is apparently correct. With EVERYTHING that has happened in the world this year, to think that Time selecting “The Protester” as POTY was firstly referring to the OWS movement is quite disappointing.
History is being made right now all around the world thanks to brave people standing up for their rights, and it appears that most of us don’t even know about it. It’s like most think that only events happening in the USA are important, which is very sad, as we are all in this world together.
The problem is that TIME lumped the Occupy idiots in with the rest of “The Protesters” thereby turning their choice into a joke while severely diminishing the real protesters’ efforts. In the U.S., the occupiers are regarded by most as either privileged kids reenacting some conception of the 1960s without a cause and/or as severely undereducated bums looking for a free lunch. TIME blew it again.
I agree, the OWS folks are a mere footnote in the relative scale of the protests that have occurred this year, but they are still people protesting, so to not mention them would have been irresponsible. Like them are not, they *are* protesters. At least they didn’t give them the cover. 😉
Go crawl back under your rock in your hell hole of a country. The USA is the best place in the world and liberals are doing everything they can to destroy it and make it just like every other disgusting, arm pit country out there. No thanks. We don’t give a flying crap about you HTML idiot.
Um, sorry, but I *AM* an American. The fact that you responded in the manner you did basically proves the point I was making. You make us look great to the rest of the world – of course, I’m sure you couldn’t “give a flying crap” about the rest of the world though.
There is no way HTML Retard is an American Citizen, no way. Probably some Euro Freak, socialist, Frog.
Wow, this has to be the most intelligent response I’ve ever read on MDN. Congrats.
“God bless America. And no place else!”
It’s discouraging to discover so many uninformed right wingers frequent this site, and are apparently Apple customers.
Right wingers are what’s wrong with America, along with the cowardly sociopaths that comprise our government.
“Right wingers” want smaller government which would necessarily inflict fewer “cowardly sociopaths” upon the nation.
You might want to rethink your “argument.”
You are the definition of brain dead.
For you dense libtards out there, I was directing my post at Four of whatever….. not sb
Karen, you must not have read the new biography about Mr. Jobs. One of his more famous quotes was “I am a firm believer in equal opportunity, but not in equal outcome.” While I agree with you that most of the folks in both parties in Washington are on the take; how does the lefts philosophy of more government involvement in our lives going to help? What we have going on right now is that business is so burdened by unnecessary regulation and scared of new regulations that are put in force by the government, that lobbyist rule the roost in both parties. Those of us on the right are not against any regulation, just keep the government out of where it does not belong. Look at the housing collapse that started the economic meltdown; this was caused by the government through the CRA act and Franklin Raines, Janet Reno and others that forced banks under the fear of being prosecuted by Reno to make loans to those that could not afford them. Then after that you had dishonest business’s bundling these toxic assets in what mortgage back securities and made a killing off of these toxic assets. Now none of the these things would have happened without the CRA act. The problem is that those on the left look at home ownership statistics and see that certain minorities are turned down a larger percentage of the time for home loans an assume racism. They looked at empirical data instead of flesh and blood human beings. The bottom line is that those that are turned down, did not have the necessary credit and scores to own a home. Look at the Dodd/Frank act that was just passed a couple of years ago; supposedly to fix the financial sector. Well it did not touch the CRA or Fannie and Freddie, it is still business as usual at those firms. All it did was over regulate the credit industry. Credit Card companies are supposed to play “fair” and not levy large late fees and higher percentage rates on those with lower credit scores. Well overnight, my credit cards went from 8-12% to 20-30%. Why is that? Because the companies have to recoup their losses and spread the misery to those of us with good credit. Lastly look at the still miserable housing market. Government continues to interfere with home foreclosures and try to help folks who will never be able to stay in their homes stay in these houses at taxpayer expense. So what is the consequence of these actions? The home market has not hit the bottom it needs to come back up; home values continue to stay artificially low. The banks have got to recoup their expense or the market will stay low. Just some common sense thoughts that should not be partisan, but rather truth.
Has Time Inc only got PC’s ?
This desicions does match that narrow PC line of thinking !
This desicion is a bad attempt of being provoctive !
Well maybe someone will start up a protest group in front of the main office of TIME that Steve Jobs didn’t get it? Or a ‘flash mob’?
TIME isn’t exactly the end all-be all – just look back at its wartime coverage…
No surprise though as I’m sure various non-Apple companies have influence… At least collectively… For now…
I hadn’t thought of “The protester” as a candidate, but I have to reluctantly agree that as an idea, they are more important then SJ. As for some of the selfish pricks above, what did the American Revolution “accomplish” in it’s first year?