[governance] TIME Magazine's Person of the Year (Battle over WHO must be Transparent)

Wed Dec 15 23:33:45 EST 2010

At the end of the day, it's about anything that increases the "bottom line",
I suppose if is to spark and generate controversy and if that creates an
increase in "sales" then I can see why they would be inclined to but if
anything, what we are seeing is a crisis of "ethics" and "values".

What do we "value"? Do we value "transparency"? If the $$$ causes one to
determine decisions (which is almost 99% of the time true in a commercial
context) at any cost (maybe that's exaggerating)...but if the opportunity
cost is "transparency"....hmmmm

On Thu, Dec 16, 2010 at 5:25 PM, Avri Doria <avri at acm.org> wrote:

> hi,
>
> Isn't Time a business and its cover a marketing gimmick.
>
> maybe the readers who voted and figured a business would care what they
> thought should be upset (i read TIme, but did not vote, why would i?), but
> other than that, what difference could this possibly make.
>
> besides Assange was on the cover 2 weeks ago.
>
> a.
>
> On 15 Dec 2010, at 19:58, Paul Lehto wrote:
>
> > For both internet and transparency purposes, Time Magazine's Person of
> > the Year choice, in light of its own Readers' Poll results, is
> > astounding.
> >
> > First, Time Magazine's Person of the Year starts with the Time
> > Readers' Poll -- which is now closed -- and which shows Assange in
> > first place, easily way ahead of everyone else for Time's 2010 Person
> > of the Year:
> >
> > 1. Julian Assange                     382,026 votes, and 92% avg
> > rating (all voters)
> > 2. Recep Tayyip Erdogan          233,639 (avg rating 80%
> > 3. Lady Gaga                          146,378 (avg rating 70%)
> > 4. Jon Stewart and John Colber  78,145, (avg rating 81%)
> > [snip]
> > 6.  Barack Obama                     27,478 (avg rating 58%)
> > 8.  the Chilean Miners                29,124 (avg rating 47%).
> > 9.  The Unemployed American   19,605 (avg rating 66%)
> > 10. Marc Zuckerberg                  18,353 (avg rating 52%)
> > [snip]
> > See
> http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,2028734_2029036,00.html
> >
> > SO, after the Time Readers' Poll, WHO IS TIME'S PERSON OF THE YEAR?
> >
> > Well....    There was a "NOTE" attached to the Readers' Poll" to the
> > direct effect that  "TIME's editors who choose the actual Person of
> > the Year reserve the right to disagree."
> >
> > And, boy, did Time editors ever disagree with the people that are
> > their own readers and customers.
> >
> > With a publication date of today (December 15, 2010) they chose the
> > 10th place finisher, Marc Zuckerbook of Facebook, who got less than
> > one vote for every 20.8 votes Assange got from Time Readers' Poll, and
> > got only about half the positive ranking of Assange  (52% for
> > Zuckerberg, 92% for Assange).
> > http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/0,28757,2036683,00.html
> >
> > But, to me, the biggest contrast and biggest shock, bigger than
> > choosing the 10th place finisher over the first place finisher in the
> > Readers' Poll, is the stark contrast between #1 Assange and #10
> > Zuckerberg on WHOSE transparency should get facilitated:
> >
> > Assange is all about transparency/accountability for the powerful,
> > while Facebook (while it has other functions) is about transparency
> > (and necessarily accountability of various kinds) for the average
> > people.  Facebook for example, is being monitored by US government
> > officials to gather information and intelligence on its own citizens
> > in certain contexts.  Things like Facebook make it enormously easier
> > for the government to monitor aspects of the private lives of netizens
> > who often innocently think they're sharing just with their "Facebook
> > friends."
> >
> > TIME has had Hitler as man of the year decades ago, and routinely
> > stresses that selection of a Person of the Year isn't a personal
> > endorsement.
> >
> > But it is telling, isn't it, that if TIME thinks Zuckerberg's social
> > media is the wave of the present and of the future, TIME nevertheless
> > had to resort to grossly undemocratic means to amplify the cause of a
> > Facebook founder and ignore the overwhelmingly more popular cause of
> > accountability / transparency for the powerful governments and
> > corporations in the USA and around the world represented by Assange.
> >
> > Simply put, the person that has the power to demand or force
> > transparency on the other person or entity (like government) is the
> > master, and the one who must yield their privacy pretty much whenever
> > asked, and must be totally transparent when required is the servant or
> > slave entity.
> >
> > Despite the "relevance" of Zuckerberg, I find Time's choice to ignore
> > its own readers and undemocratically choose Zuckerberg to be chilling
> > when the type of "transparency" fostered by Facebook is compared to
> > the type of transparency offered and fostered by Julian Assange and
> > Wikileaks.
> >
> > In the Assange/Zuckergerg contrast, the status of ascending masters
> > and descending slaves is clear.  Unless, of course, Assange continues
> > to win and decisions like TIME's POY debacle are exposed to a form of
> > transparency sometimes called robust criticism.
> >
> > Paul Lehto, J.D.
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