Last Friday I recommended that the editors of Time Magazine name the Tea Party its Person of the Year. Not to be vainglorious or anything like that, but I believe that I was the first to make the suggestion. Link here.
Yesterday, Rep. Michelle Bachmann joined the growing chorus of those of us who believe that, for better or for worse, the person or persons who had the most influence on the news in 2010 was the Tea Party. Link here.
What struck me last week was that the Tea Party was not even listed among the candidates that Time was asking people to vote for.
At the time I wrote, Julian Assange was leading the pack. By last Saturday morning Lady Gaga had overtaken Assange. As I write today, Recep Tayyip Erdogan has left everyone else in the dust.
Whoever wins the coveted cover spot, a publication whose business is reporting the news completely ignored what is arguably the most important political phenomenon of 2010.
Those who are bemoaning the declining influence of the mainstream media should take note of this fact. If the mainstream media were doing its job, it would not currently be on a march to oblivion.
Even if the dinosaur media were doing its job, it would *still* be in trouble. Organizations that succeed at one stage of a technology are rarely the winner--often even not the survivors--at the next stage. Steam-locomotive makers weren't the winners in the diesel era. Vacuum-tube manufacturers weren't the winners in the transistor and IC era. The big integrated steel companies were badly hurt by the mini-mill pioneers. And so on.
ReplyDeleteBut the people running the dinosaur media have willfully made things much worse via their extreme political bias, which has been so bad that I think it raises real questions of fiduciary responsibility to shareholders.
Hmmmm Lady Gaga, Erdogan or Assange.
ReplyDeleteIn the choices between an antisemitic Turkish autocrat, a self-important anti-american shit and an amusing barely-clad warbler, I choose the amusing barely-clad warbler, Lady Gaga.
The joke, on so many different levels, of nominating Lady Gaga as Time's "Man of the Year" is just too great to pass up. She got my vote.
I'm old enough to remember when Time was the slightly more conservative weekly newzine. Hahaha! Now it is nothing more than a seditions little pamphlet of unfounded rumor, gossip and yesterday's news.
Screw you, Time.
--Gray
Anonymous beat me to it. Just the fact that these 3 people are in the competition should demonstrate all one needs to know about "TIME." It is hard not to snicker at the joke that "Time" has become and for that matter most of the MSM.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comments. I certainly agree with David's point, but I still keep thinking that The Economist is doing just fine while Time and Newsweek are seriously floundering.
ReplyDeleteI too wonder how publications like the NY Times can justify themselves to their shareholders... though I suppose it helps if the voting shareholders are all part of the same family.
If I were forced to take Gray's test and choose among Erdogan, Assange, and Lady Gaga, I too would happily cast a vote for Gaga.