Man of the Year?

Wall Street Journal ^ | 12/23/2007 | Garry Kasparov

[rvoitier]

Aw shucks, I’m sure it’s only millions and millions. :-)

[ccmay]

Time will have blood on its hands.

No matter how many times they explain that the Man of the Year is not meant to be an honor, but simply a recognition for whoever had the greatest effect on the world for good or bad, some people still don't get the message.

[Tainan]

I wonder how many people commenting on Time magazine choice of Putin have actually read the article and interview?
I just finished reading it and thought the person writing it was way out of their league. Putin is nobodys fool and this came through loud and clear in the piece. Putin obviously thought the same as he ended the dinner interview before the main course was brought to the table. A signal the writer missed completely. The attendant comments by Hank Kissinger were a good balance to their weak weak interview and article.

I suggest folks read the piece...and read between the lines. It isa revealing piece on Putin. And his picked successor, Mededev(sp?).

[VRW Conspirator]

“Last week, 22-year-old opposition activist Yury Chervochkin died in hospital after several weeks in a coma. He had been beaten nearly to death an hour after making an anxious cellphone call to our offices saying he was being followed by members of the organized-crime task force known as UBOP, which has become the vanguard of the Kremlin’s war on political opposition. A witness saw him clubbed repeatedly by men with baseball bats.”

[ContraryMary]

There was a time when being named Time’s Man of the Year actually meant something. Those days are long gone; most of their picks are ludicrous.

[John W]

So, does Putin actually qualify via their own guidelines?

[VRW Conspirator]

TIME's "Person of the Year"...is about...influence...not...character.

...I'm not defending either TIME or Putin...

That is the problem. TIME has no morals when it decides what "influence" is, yet it retain a clear political agenda. Was GW Bush "Man of the Year" when he liberated millions of people in Iraq, well? TIME hides behind the academic criteria of "influence". Yet everyone will see the man on the cover that serves the agenda.

[dayglored]

> TIME has no morals when it decides what "influence" is, yet it retain a clear political agenda. Was GW Bush "Man of the Year" when he liberated millions of people in Iraq, well?

Here are their choices for the last decade:

1997 Andy Grove
1998 Bill Clinton and Kenneth Starr
1999 Jeffrey P. Bezos
2000 George W. Bush
2001 Rudolph Giuliani
2002 The Whistleblowers (employees of WorldCom, Enron, FBI)
2003 The American Soldier
2004 George W. Bush
2005 The Good Samaritans (Bono and Bill & Melinda Gates)
2006 You (the Information Age)
2007 Vladimir Putin

I'd say choosing GW Bush TWICE is pretty good. They chose "The American Soldier" for the liberation of Iraq.

What more do you want?

[MIchaelTArchangel]

Didn’t time list Rasputin and their Man of the Year in 1916? They have gone from the Mad Monk to the Mad Monkey. I wonder what they are smoking over there to pass over General David Patraeus?!

[squidly]

In terms of the number of journalists killed there, the only country more dangerous for journalists than Russia is Iraq.

[Marie2]

I don’t even know who Grove and Bezos are!

[VRW Conspirator]

TIME is a biased rag.

[no dems]

You forgot the “Barf Alert” winner3000.

[Xenophon450]

Considering who else they put on, this is hardly surprising...

[dayglored]

> I don’t even know who Grove and Bezos are!

Industrialists of the electronic age.

Andy Grove

Jeff Bezos

[dayglored]

> TIME is a biased rag.

No argument there.

[kevinw]

Amen. Congratulations to the Wall Street Journal for printing Garry Kasparov’s column, and congratulations to Garry Kasparov for having the courage to write it. Garry Kasparov should run for president of Russia. Go, Garry, go!