Respect Authority

As 2008 draws to a close, more and more attention seems to be getting paid to Time Magazine’s “Man of the Year” award. Oh who ever will it be? Will be be a) Obama, or b) someone other than Obama? As we wait with baited breath, let’s step back for a minute and ask ourselves why on earth we give a damn about this arbitrary title from one of print journalism’s most rapidly declining publications.

Remember now, Time used to be a well respected news magazine. They didn’t always pick the fan favorites, giving the now coveted title to Adolf Hitler in 1938, and twice to Joseph Stalin (1939 & 1942). Even as recently as 1996, the prize was awarded to people outside of the public realm such as Dr. David Ho, a pioneer in AIDS research, even acknowledging that “Ho is not, to be sure, a household name. But some people make headlines while others make history” (Ho is not a household name, LOLZ… but I digress). Then… they kind of gave up. “The Whistleblowers,” “The American Solider,” “Bill and Melinda Gates, and Bono”? Time, that is not only grammatically incorrect, it is more than one singular person. Stop rewriting the rules to your own goddamned contest. And then who can forget the epic blunder of 2006. “You,” where they put a computer with a reflective panel on the cover, for people to look at on magazine racks and shout “OH MY GOD, IT’S ME!” That’s about when I stopped reading Time for good.

But there’s something interesting about the race this year. Sure, all signs point to Barack Obama (on Time’s website under “Cons” they include “Hasn’t cured cancer, nor won the world series.” They don’t bring the news anymore, but they sure can still bring the funny! Am I right or am I right?), but maybe that’s just too obvious. And wasn’t the real thrill of the 2008 election that we did it, that it was our hope that brought the Obamas to the White House? And we’ve already been the Man of the Year, so that’s out. Read More ›