Time editor Richard Stengel pronounced at the annual Person of the Year debate luncheon that he’d like a winner with a face, not some nebulous concept, like last year’s "You" mirror cover. WWD.com reports "Most attendees at the event felt the same way, save for NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams, who has served on the panel for several years, and The View co-host Whoopi Goldberg. Both backed Mother Earth and the word "green," respectively." You can’t say Brian isn’t a good "Green Is Universal" company man.
Time's "10 Questions" feature has readers question former NBC anchor Tom Brokaw about his new book on the 1960s. Brokaw's historic hero is apparently still Gorbachev:
Who was the most influential person of the past 40 years? —Heath Urie, Boulder, Colo.
Mikhail Gorbachev, internationally, was critically important. Ronald Reagan had a big impact on American life. So did Osama bin Laden. You can't ignore that.
For more on Brokaw's embarrassing regard for Gorby, see here. Brokaw added:
-- When asked about today's (less political) youth compared to the Sixties, Brokaw replied: "We're at war. It's an unpopular and divisive war. Again, the élites have the privilege of avoiding military service because it's an all-voluntary military now. We have a much bigger drug culture now than we had then. The recreational use of drugs [then], some of it was quite benign. Now it has given way to vast criminal empires that are ravaging the inner cities of this country."
-- Asked if the new media landscape is ruining things, Brokaw said: "We're better off. We have so many more choices. What happens is, of course, that the squeaky wheel continues to get attention. I have a little tool at my house—you should get one—it's called the remote control. You can go from those channels that are showing too much of Anna Nicole Smith to, say, BBC News."
-- Finally, asked about Katie Couric's dismal ratings at CBS News, he implied (to her chagrin, no doubt) that her failures are not due to viewer sexism: "Katie, God bless her, was the first woman to go out there and become a solo anchor. It's not worked out as well as she would have liked it to. That's the result of a combination of issues. [But] we have female CEOs, females in the Senate and a prominent female running for President. I think the country was ready for a female anchor. I don't think this was a gender thing."
