NY mayor Giuliani named Time's Person of 2001 [OFFICIAL!]

The Straits Times ^ | Dec 23 9.35 pm (Singapore time) | AP

[aculeus]

NEW YORK -- Heralded for his steadfast response to a grief-torn city after the Sept 11 terrorist attacks, Mayor Rudolph Giuliani on Sunday was named Time magazine's Person of the Year.

Mr Giuliani honoured for his inspiring work after the Sept 11 attacks on the World Trade Center. -- AP The magazine's editors chose Mr Giuliani, 57, 'for having more faith in us than we had in ourselves, for being brave when required and rude where appropriate and tender without being trite, for not sleeping and not quitting and not shrinking from the pain all around him'.

Time managing editor Jim Kelly said he knew on Sept 11 that the Person of the Year would have some connection to the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Editors spent hours debating whether to name Osama bin Laden, the prime suspect in the terror assault, for the spot, Mr Kelly said.

But Osama was 'too small a man to get the credit for all that has happened in America in the autumn of 2001,' the magazine said. 'It is what came after his men had finished their job that has come to define this year.'

Mr Giuliani's communications director, Mr Sunny Mindel, said: 'The mayor is very humbled and feels this honour is really being given to the people of the city of New York for their courage and bravery during the most horrific attack on the United States.'

The Person of the Year package includes an oral history of Sept. 11 as told by Giuliani and his aides. The issue hits newsstands on Monday, one week before Mr Giuliani's last day in office after eight years. -- AP

[aculeus]

The AP release apparently went to Asian papers before those in the USA.

Time differences and all that.

[drstevej]

Any choice that brings agony to Hillary is fine by me!

[sakic]

The obvious choice was Osama but Time punked out to save some cash.

[aculeus]

Did the search for 'Giuliani' but someone posted it as 'Rudy'.

Moderator; if the other story also has the details this is yank-able.

[Anamensis]

I'm glad of this. And I don't think Time "punked out to save cash," I think they themselves probably felt a real repugnance for OBL, and could see the nauseating pathology of giving him any kind of recognition or title.

[The Drowning Witch]

Thank God....Rudy as MOTY is a no-brainer...

[anniegetyourgun]

I had a feeling this would be the outcome.

[veronica]

GREAT choice!

[Andy from Beaverton]

Talk about caving in to the all mighty buck. Rudy hasn't effected my life, my neighbor's lifa or any one else's life like the fu#^%ng terrorist bin Laden or the hijackers. This is absolutely BS! I'm never touching that rag again.

[Anamensis]

When he threw that check back at the Saud, my spirits began to lift for the first time since 9-11. For the first time I thought maybe, just maybe America is ready to stand up to them.

[eternity]

Osama, the little sucker puncher that he is. Ain't no person of anybodies anything.

[Jay W]

No, Osama was not an obvious choice. I know "Man of the Year" is supposed to be about someone who had the most influence, but there's also a moral dimension to it too.

It's for this same reason that Time wisely did not choose Adolf Hitler as "Man of the 20th Century."

In the long run, petty, evil little men, while they may well have a large though momentary impact on the news, they have no enduring impact, nor any endearing impact.

If not Giuliani, my choice would have been the New York City fireman.

[Dallas]

Time probably passed on Usama, because they couldn't get enough background to fill one page.

Other than his step-mother, no one wants to talk about him...

[Dallas]

.

[Benjamin Dover]

It should have been Dubya. The caption would read "PRESIDENT Bush". It would be the Megaphone shot, superimposed over the Towers. "We hear you!!" at the bottom.

The inside story would dispay a montage of pictures showing a teary-eyed Bush, a defiant Bush, a hands on Bush, a confident Bush, a gentle Bush, and the leader Bush. Of course, if Time were truly objective, they would also show a glad-handing X42 stopping people on the street begging for relevance, and the famous Hillary eye-rolling photo. Rudy is a great man, but he is only a mayor of one city; not exactly a force in most American's lives.

[Batman94]

I'm sorry but they obviously goofed. Throughout the year the news was dominated buy one man. The man who was hyper criticized by the infidels, the man who continued to conquer every situation that arose without fail. President Bush. From the way he handled his inauguration to the China shootdown of our plane to handling the Clinton recession and frequent defeats of the post Jeffords alteration of the Senate the people elected to the man handling of the European Summitt and befreinding of Putin. The year was W's and this choice of Rudy is confusing. I usually think they get it right even when they choose a Bin Laden type, but, now I see its a New York thing. Bye-Bye subscription!

[Pete53]

It should have been Dubya. The caption would read "PRESIDENT Bush". It would be the Megaphone shot, superimposed over the Towers. "We hear you!!" at the bottom

How right you are.

[jraven]

Other worthy candidates (like GWB) but definitely Rudy is the best choice. A true hero who displayed a triumph of the human spirit and was the glue that helped keep a city together in unprecedented horrorific moments. I really hope we see a lot of him in the future...either in the Bush administration or in another high elected office. He deserves it, even if his singing on Saturday Night Live qualified as torture under Amnesty International definitions.