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Assange should be Person of Year: Time needs a pair

Derek Baldwin, General Joe and friends | 17.12.2010 15:57 | Anti-militarism | Free Spaces | Other Press | World

"Reaction, meanwhile, was swift by readers on Time's website, including Avijit Paul who wrote, "So I guess Time has chickened out by not making Julian Assange as the person of the year. It's a shame when [Assange] was not the top when the biggest chunk of readers say he is."
Time reader Tony Castro pondered: "Wasn't Mark Zuckerberg in tenth place? I will spread this injustice like wildfire knocking your readership down to zero."

Let’s use the net (Facebook. Twitter, etc.) to demand that Mr. Zuckerman declines the offer in favor of the real winner, Julian Assange, Wikileaks, and net neutrality. We better or we might soon loose this important freedom, like so many others. We can do this.

Assange should be Person of Year: Time needs a pair

The majority of Time's 1.2 million readers disagree with the magazine's selection of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg instead of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange

By Derek Baldwin, Business Features Reporter
Published: 00:02 December 17, 2010

Reader comments (7)


WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange speaks to the press on December 16, 2010, as he arrives at Ellingham Hall in Ellingham, Norfolk, the home of friend and Frontline Club owner Vaughan Smith, after being released from Wandsworth Prison
Image Credit: AFP
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Dubai: Time magazine's selection of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg as Person of the Year 2010 isn't sitting well with the lion's share of 1.2 million readers who voted for WikiLeaks leader Julian Assange instead.
On Wednesday, Time editors named Zuckerberg, 26, as the most important figure of the year and within hours was posting a link on Twitter explaining why they chose the Harvard dropout over Assange, who led the release this year of more than half-a-million sensitive government cables and reports to the chagrin of the US and its allies.

The Twitter link directed readers to a statement by Time Managing Editor Richard Stengel who defended the pick.
"More than anyone else on the world stage, Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg is at the centre of these changes. Born in 1984, the same year the Macintosh computer was launched, he is both a product of his generation and an architect of it. The social-networking platform he invented is closing in on 600 million users. In a single day, about a billion new pieces of content are posted on Facebook," Stengel said.
Connective tissue
"It is the connective tissue for nearly a tenth of the planet. Facebook is now the third largest country on earth and surely has more information about its citizens than any government does. Zuckerberg, a Harvard dropout, is its T-shirt-wearing head of state."
Time didn't respond to a query by Gulf News on Thursday by press time.
Gulf News wanted to ask for specific details as to why Zuckerberg was chosen over Assange who placed first in the Time reader poll with 382,020 votes of a total 1.25 million votes cast compared to Zuckerberg who placed dead last in the top 10 list.
Reaction, meanwhile, was swift by readers on Time's website, including Avijit Paul who wrote, "So I guess Time has chickened out by not making Julian Assange as the person of the year. It's a shame when [Assange] was not the top when the biggest chunk of readers say he is."
Time reader Tony Castro pondered: "Wasn't Mark Zuckerberg in tenth place? I will spread this injustice like wildfire knocking your readership down to zero."

-----

Spread widely. General Joe

Find details for more publishing below:

Assange should be Person of Year: Time needs a pair

Derek Baldwin, General Joe and friends

"Reaction, meanwhile, was swift by readers on Time's website, including Avijit Paul who wrote, "So I guess Time has chickened out by not making Julian Assange as the person of the year. It's a shame when [Assange] was not the top when the biggest chunk of readers say he is."
Time reader Tony Castro pondered: "Wasn't Mark Zuckerberg in tenth place? I will spread this injustice like wildfire knocking your readership down to zero."

Let’s use the net (Facebook. Twitter, etc.) to demand that Mr. Zuckerman declines the offer in favor of the real winner, Julian Assange, Wikileaks, and net neutrality. We better or we might soon loose this important freedom, like so many others. We can do this.

Derek Baldwin, General Joe and friends

Comments

Hide the following 5 comments

some background

17.12.2010 16:14

taker


Time is about to have a few technical problems

17.12.2010 20:06

Operation End of Time is a nice title floating about the internet at the moment. Watch the obvious suspects for details.

secure loic coming soon


Julian Assange would be an excellent Time person of the year...

18.12.2010 09:16

... a worthy successor to Hitler (1938), Stalin (1939 and 1942) and Ayatollah Khomeini (1979).

Agreed


re: agreed

18.12.2010 10:15

Time Person of the Year is for a person who has the most effect on society, whether good or bad. Sometimes it is bad people like Hitler, other times it is good people like Julian Assange.

anon


Careful now!

19.12.2010 17:24

"Time Person of the Year is for a person who has the most effect on society, whether good or bad. Sometimes it is bad people like Hitler, other times it is good people like Julian Assange."

Time is America through your letterbox.

Their "Person of the Year" is simply that person who most aids the US in furthering its wider interests.

Hitler, Stalin, Ayatollah Khomeini have all made America stronger so have become suitable candidates for Time (US Government) person of the year.

Julian Assange has done similar work for America by being the person who leaked US diplomatic cables onto the public thereby feeding a sense that the truth is now out there. But in reality, these leaks are moderate diplomatic trivia. America's worst crimes are never recorded on official documents primarily to prevent 'current' and 'immediate future' government representatives from gaining a hold on political capital.

Mr Assange has been a pain for the Americans in the past but they now realise that the aims of Wikileaks and the US Government have converged in the post war environment. Mr Assange is now useful to the US. But they can't 'place him' themselves so have to let the left do the dirty for them.

Mr Assange is a decent man, about to be made into a US compliant fraud...in order for the US to put a lid on its recent human rights crimes. The 'left' are to be used to make the scam 'stick'

Time would like nothing better than to make him their 'person of the year'...which is precisely why he has been overlooked!

Look to the lawyer!

Knot-eyed Jaguar.


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