I … I’m Just So … So Flattered …
December 17th, 2006
TIME magazine delivers what could be seen as the ultimate expression of one-to-one marketing for its Person of the Year Issue. This comes 24 years after the magazine named the computer the Machine of the Year.
Do we all get a free copy of the issue? A congratulatory letter? A celebratory dinner? How soon before TIME starts selling commemorative covers of this issue with the ability to insert your face or blog or Web site onto the cover (for just $19.95, plus shipping and handling).
Sorry, TIME, I appreciate the gesture, I really do. But it strikes me as a weasly choice, and it looks liike it strikes you the same way. From the AP article: “If you choose an individual, you have to justify how that person affected millions of people,” said Richard Stengel, who took over as Time’s managing editor earlier this year. “But if you choose millions of people, you don’t have to justify it to anyone.”
So I finally get my due, but it comes without justification. Damn. Well, at least I have something cool to mention in my obituary (“…and in 2006, he was named TIME Magazine’s Person of the Year.”).
Maybe they were just afraid of a spelling malfunction had they gone with Ahmadinejad. But I suppose he’s included, too, since he has a blog like everyone else.
December 18th, 2006 at 10:25 am
OPEN LETTER TO TIME MAGAZINE EDITOR
Mr. Rick Stengel,
It is really amazing to see how corporate media, that is to say YOU, twist information as you wish. Until Saturday 16th December, HUGO CHAVEZ was leading your person of the year poll by 35% next to his contender, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad who had 21%. And now today Sunday, 17th December, you decide to erase all records on your webpage and proclame YOU (that is to say the general public) the Person of the Year for 2006!!! This is an outrageous move. How dare you offend your readers and public opinion in general this way! Is this the democracy and the unbiased standards you defend? What happened? Does nominating Hugo Chavez go against your editorial line that is dictated from the corporations that keep the money coming in? This is absolutely sick and it is an open offense to the dignity, intelligence and opinion of us all.
If you and your big buddies don’t like Hugo Chavez, well too bad. Most the world LOVES him, like it or not (as shown on your poll results). His leadership, his social and political advancements, his proposals and projects and his positions against this capitalistic world that is going down the drain is surely promising and inspiring for all of us who think the world is sick, the system is killing us with injustices, wars, ecological threats and the media (YOU) promoting these. We see in him the path of a new world for the coming, because we believe another world is not only possible it is URGENT and NECESSARY.
So, go on, I guess in a way it is not so bad you act like this, sooner or later, more and more people will wake up and start to question your ways. Long live Chavez, a new world and independent media!
Andrea Hernandez