Time Magazine Names the Silence Breakers Persons of the Year
by Stephen Lendman (stephenlendman.org – Home – Stephen Lendman)
Time magazine began selecting a person or persons of the year in 1927 – choosing “the person(s) who had the most influence, for better or worse, over the past year.”
Past winners included Obama (2008 and 2012), Vladimir Putin (2007), Mahatma Gandhi (1930), Franklin Roosevelt (1932, 1934 and 1941), Adolph Hitler (1938), Joseph Stalin (1939 and 1942), Jack Kennedy (1961), Richard Nixon (1971 and 1972), Ronald Reagan (1980 and 1983), Mikhail Gorbachev (1987 and 1989), Bill Clinton (1992 and 1998), GW Bush (2000 and 2004), and numerous other high-profile figures.
All US presidents were named Person of the Year – except Calvin Coolidge, Herbert Hoover and Gerald Ford. The only award recipient before and after becoming president was Dwight Eisenhower.
FDR was the only three-time winner. Time’s last 1989 issue named Mikhail Gorbachev “Man of the Decade.” On December 31, 1999, Albert Einstein was honored as “Person of the Century” – for representing a century of exploration and wonder.
Film star Ashley Judd began what became a public flood of accusations against notable Hollywood, political and other figures, telling Time:
“I started talking about (movie producer) Harvey (Weinstein) the minute that it happened.”
“Literally, I exited that hotel room at the Peninsula Hotel in 1997 and came straight downstairs to the lobby, where my dad was waiting for me, because he happened to be in Los Angeles from Kentucky, visiting me on the set.”
“And he could tell by my face – to use his words – that something devastating had happened to me. I told him. I told everyone.”
A screen writer told her that Weinstein’s behavior was an open secret. He’s far alone in tinseltown, on Capitol Hill or elsewhere.
Marylyn Monroe once said she knew numerous Hollywood lechers.
“I met them all,” she explained. “Phoniness and failure were all over them.”
“Some were vicious and crooked. But they were as near to the movies as you could get. So you sat with them, listening to their lies and schemes. And you saw Hollywood with their eyes – an overcrowded brothel, a (sexual) merry-go-round…”
In 1950, Time named the American fighting man person of the year – notably after Harry Truman’s naked aggression on North Korea months earlier.
In 2003, it chose the American soldier – after Bush/Cheney’s preemptive war on Iraq based on a Big Lie. The same goes for all wars.
Time rarely chose peace activists. Exceptions included Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Mikhail Gorbachev, Nelson Mandela, and Albert Einstein.
He once said “(m)y pacifism is an instinctive feeling, a feeling that possesses me because the murder of men is abhorrent.”
“My attitude is not derived from intellectual theory but is based on my deepest antipathy to every kind of cruelty and hatred.”
“Science is a powerful instrument. How it is used, whether it is a blessing or a curse to mankind, depends on mankind and not on the instrument. A knife is useful, but it can also kill.”
He had two passions – his ground-breaking work and peace, saying he was dedicated to it throughout his life.
Time honored him for his scientific genius. The publication notoriously supports US naked aggression – the shame of all Western media.
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