Despite today's earlier report, the bloggers are in fact still in the running for the Time's people of the year. In an interview with I Want Media, Time managing editor Jim Kelly drops a big hint that this year's people of the year may be the bloggers after all. Furthermore, he said the magazine received a lot of votes for the bloggers. Hmm, I wonder who's fault that is! Highlights...
IWM: Who are the leading contenders?
Kelly: It's been an interesting year. We've had two films that did much better than anyone expected: Mel Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ" and Michael Moore's "Fahrenheit 911." There was a lot of thought about naming those two as Filmmakers of the Year. Karl Rove got a lot of votes. Rove was the architect of President Bush's reelection campaign and victory, as Bush himself said. Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the insurgent leader in Iraq, got a number of votes as kind of representing the enemy that America faces. We got a lot of votes for bloggers as the Persons of the Year. And, of course, we got a lot of votes for President Bush because he did get reelected.
~~~ Snip ~~~
IWM: Are bloggers leading contenders to be Persons of the Year?
Kelly: I would say that they are contenders, yes. You could name one blog and call it Blog of the Year, or name a group of people and call them Blogs of the Year. There are six or seven people who clearly have a lot of influence.
