# Time's Person of the Year **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [December 6, 2011, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/times-person-of-the-year/605296 "2011-12-06T20:59:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![YogSothoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/8edcca/32.png) [@YogSothoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YogSothoth)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2011, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/times-person-of-the-year/605296/61 "2011-12-09T19:42:17Z")
> [@El\_Zagna](#): > > How about the unknown member of Seal Team 6 who pulled the trigger and killed bin Laden? It would sell a lot of magazines. Unfortunately, you can’t put his face on the magazine. Or you could, but he’d have to kill you! 😉 ---
**Author:** ![AndyLee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/898d66/32.png) [@AndyLee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AndyLee)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2011, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/times-person-of-the-year/605296/62 "2011-12-09T20:05:28Z")
Time’s Man of The Year was supposed to be the person who most infulenced events good or bad. I believe Hitler was a Man of the Year. (I may be wrong on that though). When Time punked out and refused to name Osama Bin Laden instead picking the NYC mayor instead the lost a lot of credibility. OBL easily changed events more than anyone in that year or a long time. They didn’t want to pick a bad guy. Thus from that point on, the Man of The Year ceased to be anything real and was more about picking a good guy to sell their magazine. ---
**Author:** ![Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/f04885/32.png) [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qin_Shi_Huangdi)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2011, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/times-person-of-the-year/605296/63 "2011-12-10T03:00:24Z")
> [@AndyLee](#): > > Time’s Man of The Year was supposed to be the person who most infulenced events good or bad. I believe Hitler was a Man of the Year. (I may be wrong on that though). > > When Time punked out and refused to name Osama Bin Laden instead picking the NYC mayor instead the lost a lot of credibility. OBL easily changed events more than anyone in that year or a long time. They didn’t want to pick a bad guy. Thus from that point on, the Man of The Year ceased to be anything real and was more about picking a good guy to sell their magazine. Well that depends on whether one considers Vladimir Putin to be a “good guy” or not. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2011, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/times-person-of-the-year/605296/64 "2011-12-10T03:17:00Z")
Time’s assessment of Putin was very mixed. The Man/Person of the Year thing has always been about selling magazines, but it’s true that the Giuliani pick was absurd and there have been many others that were silly. I do think an Arab Spring activist would make the most sense, or something like Arab Reformers in general. There was talk about Assange last year, but if he wasn’t the choice then, I don’t see why he would be this year. Picking Steve Jobs just because he died would be over the top, I think. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2011, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/times-person-of-the-year/605296/65 "2011-12-14T14:18:09Z")
[The Protester](http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0%2C28804%2C2101745_2102132%2C00.html). Apparently, this includes the Occupiers, not jus the Arab Spring folks. Why don’t we just make it “everyone in the world”? :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2011, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/times-person-of-the-year/605296/66 "2011-12-14T14:24:47Z")
They already did “You” a couple of years back. What a moronic idea that was. ---
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2011, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/times-person-of-the-year/605296/67 "2011-12-14T14:38:59Z")
> [@RNATB](#): > > They already did “You” a couple of years back. What a moronic idea that was. So really, they’re narrowing it down… But yea, weak choice. TIME seems to basically want to get out of having to do these stories every year, and since they feel obligated, just come up with some group of people that are diffuse enough that no one gets pissed off. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2011, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/times-person-of-the-year/605296/68 "2011-12-14T14:42:35Z")
Well, at least they didn’t make the protestor blacker. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2011, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/times-person-of-the-year/605296/69 "2011-12-14T14:56:08Z")
> [@](#): > > Massive and effective street protest" was a global oxymoron until — suddenly, shockingly — starting exactly a year ago, it became the defining trope of our times. And the protester once again became a maker of history. I understand that “trope” is pretentious. ---
**Author:** ![E-Sabbath](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e19adc/32.png) [@E-Sabbath](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-Sabbath)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2011, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/times-person-of-the-year/605296/70 "2011-12-14T18:03:17Z")
Very weaksauce. ---
**Author:** ![Palo\_Verde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/65b543/32.png) [@Palo\_Verde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Palo_Verde)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2011, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/times-person-of-the-year/605296/71 "2011-12-14T18:42:07Z")
I think it’s a good choice. It combines the world news story of the Arab spring and the U.S. story of the Tea Park and Occupiers. Plus you can mix in there the current event of the Russians protesting voting irregularities. It’s the people rising up to protest unfair conditions, wherever they may be. ---
**Author:** ![Lantern](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d26b3c/32.png) [@Lantern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lantern)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2011, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/times-person-of-the-year/605296/72 "2011-12-14T20:18:17Z")
The pick itself is often silly but the articles are usually worth reading. For example the notorious “You” was roundly panned but I enjoyed reading the actual articles about how different people around the world were using the web. And gimmicky as it sounded, the idea of user-created content is indeed a vast force in popular culture today. This year’s article is a pretty decent read about the protests which happened during the year. I think the end-of-the-year format helps provide a broader perspective; looking back with some hindsight about the Arab protests and drawing links with protests in the West. ---
**Author:** ![Kozmik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/8dc957/32.png) [@Kozmik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kozmik)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2011, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/times-person-of-the-year/605296/73 "2011-12-15T04:41:40Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > [The Protester](http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0%2C28804%2C2101745_2102132%2C00.html). Apparently, this includes the Occupiers, not jus the Arab Spring folks. Why don’t we just make it “everyone in the world”? :rolleyes: Because “everyone in the world” includes the 1%. :mad: ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2011, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/times-person-of-the-year/605296/74 "2011-12-15T14:32:17Z")
…and Muammar Khaddafi. ---
**Author:** ![raskolnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e47c2d/32.png) [@raskolnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/raskolnik)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2011, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/times-person-of-the-year/605296/75 "2011-12-15T14:41:44Z")
I think…as a 27 year old…Bin Laden maybe person ‘of my life!’ Seriously, that man is was the…Martin Luther of our time. He changed the world…ten’s if not hundrends of thousands dead, a new world order, a weakend US vs a hostile China? A destabilized Pakistan with nuclear weapons? A demopctratic middle east without foreign onvolvement…Egypt? Dear God, every cliche idea of the 90’s has gone mad this year. -I’m also really glad an american shot him in the FACE! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/times-person-of-the-year/605296.md?page=3)