Editor: Bloggers Contending for Time's People of the Year

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.