Time Editor Says Tea Party Not Named 'Person of the Year' Because They're Not a Person
Time's managing editor Richard Stengel appeared on MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell Reports, on Thursday, to promote his magazine's Person of the Year issue and after he cited the reasons for selecting Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, he explained the reason the Tea Party didn't was because they were a group. After host Andrea Mitchell asked him to explain his rationale for not picking the other runners-up, Stengel lamely told her he disqualified the Tea Party because he's "biased in favor of putting a single person on the cover."
However, devoting a Time Person of the Year cover to a group of people is not without precedent. In recent years Time acknowledged "The Good Samaritans" of Bono, Bill and Melinda Gates in 2005, "The American Soldier" in 2003, and in 2006, when Stengel took over as managing editor of Time he put a mirror on the cover of the magazine as he declared "You" the Person of the Year.
The following exchange was aired on the December 15 edition of Andrea Mitchell Reports:
ANDREA MITCHELL: What about the runners-up? Why were they chosen and why do they fall just short of the mark?
RICHARD STENGEL, TIME: So we had the, the Tea Party was one of the runners-up. They had an obviously extraordinary year. I'm biased in favor of putting a single person on the cover, and part of the problem with the Tea Party is it's hard to find a single person. Julian Assange obviously came on very strong at the end of the year. And in some ways he is the flip-side of Mark Zuckerberg. They both talk about transparency. They both talk about openness. Assange wants to use that in terms of pulling down governments and pulling down institutions. Zuckerberg wants to use that openness in terms of connecting people and he's reaching just a staggering number of people. There will soon be 600 million on Facebook. The Chilean miners was, would've been you know a heart-warming choice and we have a fantastic photo essay of them. And Hamid Karzai, of course, wasn't going to win but represents the, the, the hardest foreign policy issue facing us today.
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Comments
Like I Give A S*it
Submitted by BBallleaper on Wed, 12/15/2010 - 5:39pm.
what Pravda Time thinks! What an arrogant, egotistical, self-inflated 'award'. Don't read it, don't subscribe to it. Would use it as toilet paper if it wasn't so darn scratchy!
Meaningless award
Submitted by canuck on Wed, 12/15/2010 - 5:45pm.
This ranks right up there with Nobel "Peace" prizes to Obama and Arafait. A meaningless award to individuals that need the left to confirm their importance to the masses that find them irrelevant.
It sells magazines
Submitted by Galvanic on Wed, 12/15/2010 - 5:54pm.
The TIME Person of the Year is the marketing equivalent of Sports Illustrated's annual swimsuit issue. It sells magazines during a traditionally light news week.
Not with that cover photo.
Submitted by Apache on Wed, 12/15/2010 - 6:26pm.
Not with that cover photo.
Rick Santelli, has my vote....
Submitted by upcountrywater on Wed, 12/15/2010 - 5:47pm.
Still fresh video... for all time.
Republicans freshly SLIMED by democrats again... Please explain why the democrats are head and shoulders above the republicans? F word here...
You Didn't Build That.
Tea Party
Submitted by Gat New York on Wed, 12/15/2010 - 7:22pm.
You have to view it from the prism of Stengel.
Real Americans (aka Tea Party folks) are not real people.
Other past winners...
Submitted by owr084 on Wed, 12/15/2010 - 5:57pm.
Other "Men of the Year" from Time that were not awarded to a specific person. 1982 was not even human...
1950 - American fighting Man
1956 - Hungarian Freedom fighter
1960 - US Scientists
1966 - Twenty Five and Under
1969 - The middle Americans
1982 - The Computer
1993 - The Peacemakers
2002 - The Whistleblowers
Time's "Planet of the Year"
Submitted by Unsane on Thu, 12/16/2010 - 1:30am.
1988 - Earth
"CONSUMED DEMOCRACY RETURNS A SOCIALIST REGIME" - Slayer, "Fictional Reality", from Divine Intervention (1994)
Mr Stengel, please go back to
Submitted by Odin's Underling on Wed, 12/15/2010 - 6:08pm.
Mr Stengel, please go back to the year you put the mirror on the cover, look at that reflection and say, "Most Irrelevant Person of the Year."
time
Submitted by east tennessee john on Wed, 12/15/2010 - 6:15pm.
Does anyone actually read this or newsweek? Does anyone really expect the lamestreamers to give any positive press to the Tea Party Movement, record election results or not? We didn't need their glossy pages before, we don't now. We are of the results that matter group at let these self proclaimed elitists challenge that.
John
Submitted by Tugboat Phil on Wed, 12/15/2010 - 6:44pm.
Not only do people (that matter) not read these rags, but I believe they are the only magazines that caged birds consider unworthy to shiite on. I've even heard that dead fish refuse to be wrapped in the pages.
that's what I was wondering
Submitted by michiganruth on Wed, 12/15/2010 - 7:12pm.
really: when was the last time you willingly read a Time or a NewsWeek that was NOT sitting there in a doctor's waiting room?
I don't care about his rationale against the Tea Party, whatever. I too think it's weird when a group is named "Person" of the year. but whatever. but the facebook guy? ok, facebook reaches a gazillion people. but did it just do that a few weeks ago? c'mon. facebook has been a (mostly irritating) part of our consciousness for awhile now. what did it do particularly this year to warrant this, other than having had a movie made about it?
Hell, they could have put
Submitted by Apache on Wed, 12/15/2010 - 6:32pm.
Hell, they could have put Obama on the cover and looked smarter. 1) They have enough practice and 2) He did the most of any person to destroy liberalism for years.
Facebook is nothing. It's a place to waste time. Twitter makes more sense. It was the only way to get news in and out of Iran. It actually did something. The most you can credit Facebook for is home burglary due to people getting too descriptive about their comings and goings. It’s just such a lame choice.
'Stengel lamely told her he
Submitted by NevadanConservative on Wed, 12/15/2010 - 6:48pm.
'Stengel lamely told her he disqualified the Tea Party because he's "biased in favor of putting a single person on the cover." '
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIME_Man_of_the_Year#History demonstrates that, aside from the 2006 IMO pathetic bootlick to a declining readership, Stengel has indeed, in his time as head of TIME, stuck to individuals.
Leftist individuals.
For some time in my late teens and early twenties I had considered TIME to be pretty much the "magazine of record". Such a dimwit error on my part.
NVCon
http://inlinethumb43.webshots.com/17194/2872764590061034863S600x600Q85.jpg
this pick was a present vote.
Submitted by Tjexcite on Wed, 12/15/2010 - 7:12pm.
Mark Zuckerberg has done great things but he should have been on before now if creating Facebook was all the great like in 06 or 07. The person who should of been POTY but would never be is Glenn Beck.
The vote for Mark is a vote for anyone but Beck vote.
Facebook is too big
Submitted by Gat New York on Wed, 12/15/2010 - 7:21pm.
What Zuckerberg created was an exuse not to talk or meet with people.
I'm not convinced it is good at all.
At this point they have not caught up with their growth and have not been abiding by their own terms of use and critical issues regarding privacy.
I agree that was a vote for anybody other than Glenn Beck or the Tea Party.
the facebook guy???
Submitted by MrShy on Wed, 12/15/2010 - 7:26pm.
Wins it for.... 2010?? That is so 2008, if not the year before.
Lame.
- Shybook
Join Mr. Shy and The 1* Percent
The Time "Person of the Year"
Submitted by Chris Norman on Wed, 12/15/2010 - 9:42pm.
The Time "Person of the Year" doesn't matter much any more. It's the "Worlds Fair" of magazine issues. The "Miss America" of magazine issues...
Time POTY a joke - two words
Submitted by Vonu on Thu, 12/16/2010 - 2:38am.
Ben Bernanke