Panel suggests Hurricane Katrina be Time's Person of the Year

[jefferson_dem]

Panel suggests Hurricane Katrina be Time's Person of the Year

Deepti Hajela / Associated Press

NEW YORK -- Time magazine's 2005 Person of the Year may not be a person after all. A panel of notables made a strong case on Monday for awarding the distinction this year to Hurricane Katrina.


NBC anchor Brian Williams included Katrina in his larger nomination of Mother Nature, which he picked because of a host of environmental stories this year, from the tsunami to earthquakes in Pakistan. He said the hurricane and its aftermath led to a host of other issues.


"Katrina gets you to Iraq. It gets you to petroleum. It gets you to presidential politics," Williams said. "It has laid bare so many cracks and fissures in our system."


Williams was part of a six-member panel invited to make suggestions to the magazine about who or what it should choose as its Person of the Year.


He was joined by CNN anchor Anderson Cooper, who like Williams traveled to the Gulf Coast to cover Katrina after it hit on Aug. 29. Other members included Time reporter Matthew Cooper, Democratic political consultant Donna Brazile, conservative activist Grover Norquist and WorldCom whistleblower Cynthia Cooper, named a Person of the Year by the magazine in 2002.

<SNIP>

http://www.wwltv.com/local/stories/wwl111405timepoy.5e1c806f.html

[Pirate Smile]

1. Mother Nature should win this year. Katrina, Tsunami, southeast Asia

earthquake, global warming, etc.

If it needs a "person" name, I'd go with Katrina though. Her impact can't be overstated.

[davidinalameda]

2. I'd go with Mother Nature as well

[spancks]

3. I'd rather see Cindy Sheehan on the cover,

and save the impact of Katrina since nature has neither intent nor personality, not matter how great it's effect on events.

[Catchawave]

4. Mother Nature has my vote too !

First thing that came to my mind when I saw the subject line :hi:

Didn't Mom Nature kick off the year with the SE Asian tsunamis? Finishing up with a record number of tropical events and west coast mudslides, fire storms, midwest tornadoes...OH MY!

[pretzel4gore]

5. 'Pigmedia'

the gadarene swine of our era......in a nuclear age, beset by vast problems of global warming, too much arms, too much drugs, too much money, too much religion, too much poverty/boredom, too much television controlled by too few, and the gadarene swine help a criminal with a peas-for-brain steal control of the most powerful economic/political unit humanity posseses! a unit which, while not perfect, still offered a chance for the human race to find a way through the quagmire, but them monstrous criminals at foxnews/cnn/clearchannel,bbc/cbc/reuters/AP/nytimes/lat/washpost/nbc/cbs/abc//pbs/npr etc ad nazism (their name is legion, eh) decided they were the rulers and they decide who playact the big fukking man

[tridim]

6. Pointing out the obvious..

A hurricane is not a person. It's Time's PERSON of the year, not Time's event of the year.

Why not Fitzgerald or Cindy Sheehan?

[WindRavenX]

8. It's weird how we anthromorphize things

While dehumanize others. Clearly, the victims of Hurricane Katrina and Rita have been dehumanized and ignored, while we give human names and personalities to things that by nature are not human.
This disturbs me.

[TroglodyteScholar]

10. Thank you..

I was about to burst reading the first several replies. Person of the Year really should probably be a person.

[The2ndWheel]

12. Fitzgerald or Sheehan?

Pick someone who actually made a difference...like ExxonMobil.

[Skinner]

25. I remember back when I was in high school, Time picked "Planet Earth"

Instead of "Man of the Year" or "Person of the Year" the cover said "Planet of the Year".

Wikipedia has the fill list of Time Persons of the Year. Planet Earth was in 1988:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Person_of_the_Year

So, there is a precedent for choosing a non-human.

[FlemingsGhost]

7. How about the citizens of New Orleans ... at least they are people.

Oh, right ... the poor aren't really people, after all.

[pearl]

11. I feel making Katrina or Mother Nature

into a Person ignores, dehumanizes and diminishes
the true human suffering and heroics we have seen this
year.

[alcibiades_mystery]

9. All Hail Inanimate Metal Rod

:evilgrin:

[kainah]

13. time to change "person of the year"

I agree that Mother Earth has made a very strong bid this year but I've always thought it was odd when they awarded that title to things. (The computer stands out in my memory.) They should come up with a better title.

[thebigidea]

14. it translates into publicity-hungry mediawhores wanting more facetime

Cooper and Williams can sit around waxing pretentious about their brave reporting... they can rerun endless hours of footage of them in windbreakers hollering in the wind.

[Democat]

15. Time is probably trying to convince the public to not blame Bush

Time is probably just trying to tell Americans to blame everything bad on mother nature, not Bush.

[JJackFlash]

16. Time person of the Year: Mother Nature?

Mother Nature tops Time person of the year list

By Ellen Wulfhorst 2 hours, 49 minutes ago

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Time magazine's annual "Person of the Year" for 2005 may not be a person at all.

Mother Nature topped the unofficial list of nominees at a panel discussion held on Monday by the weekly magazine to debate who will grace the cover of the issue that hits newsstands on December 19....

The choice is supposed to remain a secret until December 18, when it will be disclosed on the magazine's Web site, but it does become a parlor game in America to ponder who fits the criteria as "the person or persons who most affected the news and our lives, for good or for ill, and embodied what was important about the year, for better or for worse."v
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20051114/sc_nm/media_time_dc

[orpupilofnature57]

17. I wonder if they'll be mentioning the " Dominion Theocracy " as Her..

number one enemy .Probably Shrubs cutting brush with a chain saw , or hugging a black old women.

[JJackFlash]

19. You lost me

Are you referring to Mother Nature's punishment of the red states?

[orpupilofnature57]

20. No, what aspect they'll choose to cover? More I guess is the red states..

punishment of mother nature.

[opihimoimoi]

18. Mother Nature IS the GOD/Force/Higher Level most of usa are looking for

and hardly ever find.

She Rules the Universe and Beyond....

[0007]

21. This is a very esoteric thread! Bar none.....n/t

[WinkyDink]

22. Well, that's just stupid.

Why not Father Time?
Br'er Rabbit?

[Fovea]

24. Ask someone from N.O.

Or the November tornado victims in Iowa.
Or the hundreds of thousands of drowned Asians.

This has been a banner year for Mother Nature. She's pissed, and I for one am listening.

[Fovea]

23. Blessed Be

'Bout time, too.

[alarimer]

26. I nominate the VICTIMS of Mother Nature

As Time's People of the year. Why not?