Dear Time, You Suck
I was perusing the Book of Face recently, I found my sister, reacting to Time's announcement of Mark Zuckerburg as the person of the year, posted the following:
Time Magazine just ruined their reputation by naming Zuckerberg as 'Person of the Year'...
This of course was met by a half thought out comment from another user:
Person of the year is neither a compliment or criticism. Hitler and other villains have made the list. Just a FYI
Well Time ruining their reputation insinuates that they had a positive reputation to begin with. True, this isn't the Angel of the Year award. Rather I think that it's a title that SHOULD be bestowed upon the person that had the biggest
impact that year. In not just my opinion but the opinion of a democratic process put forth by Time itself to its readers, Julian
Assange had much more impact this year than Zuckerburg. Here's why Time's decision is so upsetting.
impact that year. In not just my opinion but the opinion of a democratic process put forth by Time itself to its readers, Julian
Assange had much more impact this year than Zuckerburg. Here's why Time's decision is so upsetting.
If Facebook was new this year and suddenly has 500M users. I'd agree with Time's decision. But regardless of how you feel about Assange, the info he's leaked about Afghanistan (460,000 docs) just in October and now, not even 2 months later, leaking 250,000 diplomatic cables, has the potential to have a greater impact to change the world THIS YEAR than a system that's been in mainstream use for the last 5 years. When you consider that this is essentially the first year of the mainstream usage of Wikileaks and you already see how the government is acting in panic mode to censor this new form of journalism, you'll see that the impact that what Julian Assange has done is going to have a profound impact on not just how our government operates but it's having an profound impact on rights that our Founders previously deemed unalienable.
In a perfect world, if we weren't lied to by our government, imagine how things would be different. Michael Moore wrote a great article on that earlier this week when he announced he was helping Assange's bail fund: http://bit.ly/gHwtc3. And what he posted is just a small sampling of how the world could have been different if we've had more openness and transparency. Now thanks to Wikileaks, the Guardian reported on three new sites that are starting up to provide even more openness and transparency: http://bit.ly/fd9gre. The world is changing again and while Zuck is most certainly helping to change the world in his own way, I don't see anything new that he's contributed this year besides being the subject of a Hollywood film that just might sweep the Oscars.
And if I remove myself from all things Wikileaks for just one minute, I would argue that as much as I loathe the miguided ideology of the Mama Grizzlies, the Tea Party has also had a huge impact on American politics. And what about Steve Jobs? The iPad finally has done what no tablet has been able to do for the last 20 years: not suck. When you consider that this is allowing people that have not previously been able to read the ability to now do so (http://bit.ly/fKdfAq) among other amazing feats AND it's selling like wildfire. How does Mark Zuckerburg beat HIM out?
Dear TIME, You Suck.
