If the criteria are who is the most significant man in the news, for good or bad, then Admadinejad should have been given the nod.
It's not an honor as such to be the man of the year. Or since Time went PC and now calls it person of the year. It's the biggest news maker, good or bad. Yes they did cop out in 2001 by not naming bin Laden. I think they thought too many people thought it would be an honor to name bin Laden that year.
They're probably right about that. Kind of a no-win situation for TIme. Best thing they could do would probably be to just drop the concept. Everybody knows that "You" was a pretty gay choice.