TIME Magazine Person of the Year: You & Me

If you haven't heard by now TIME Magazine has announced its Person of the Year: You. Congratulations to all of us. So why are we all the person of the year? Simple, because of how we who use the internet are bringing about the change from the elite media controlling the message to a freer exchange of ideas as well as greater access to the truth unfiltered by spin.

As the article states: "And for seizing the reins of the global media, for founding and framing the new digital democracy, for working for nothing and beating the pros at their own game, TIME's Person of the Year for 2006 is you. "

I suspect that the editorial staff at TIME had to choke a bit on this. The main stream media hasn't been too happy that its stranglehold has been loosened & that their bias has been uncovered. & being forced to admit we are winning has to be a bitter pill.

I don't think this is a surrender though, I see it as a mere strategic retreat for the moment. They are looking for ways to regain the reins & put all of us out of business. & I doubt if they have any respect for us. In fact I agree with what Paul who blogs in Thoughts of a Regular Guy has to say about TIME's view of the blogosphere: " Time Magazine still holds us bloggers in full contempt. They don't really admit that they've lost the reins of the global media, and they'll cling to them and try to keep them for themselves."

Some of this contempt comes through in what it has to say about us. "Who are these people? Seriously, who actually sits down after a long day at work and says, I'm not going to watch Lost tonight. I'm going to turn on my computer and make a movie starring my pet iguana? I'm going to mash up 50 Cent's vocals with Queen's instrumentals? I'm going to blog about my state of mind or the state of the nation or the steak-frites at the new bistro down the street? Who has that time and that energy and that passion?

The answer is, you do." (emphasis mine, positive, negative )

Did you notice that most of the examples used are condescending put downs that show their real state of mind toward us? That the emphasis is more on the negative than the positive? If not does this clarify things? "We made Facebook profiles and Second Life avatars and reviewed books at Amazon and recorded podcasts. We blogged about our candidates losing and wrote songs about getting dumped. We camcordered bombing runs and built open-source software. " or "Web 2.0 harnesses the stupidity of crowds as well as its wisdom. Some of the comments on YouTube make you weep for the future of humanity just for the spelling alone, never mind the obscenity and the naked hatred." (emphais mine, positive, negative)

I could go on but I think that makes the point. I admit the criticism has some validity, there is a lot of junk out there as well as some good thought proving stuff, also some just plain old fun entertainment. But, the fact that they dwell more on the negative than the positive tells me what they really think of us wresting control from them even of the internet.

The mainstream media likes to present itself as unbiased. The truth is, it never has been. Go back to the early days of America & even to the days before the Revolutionary War. Papers then were openly Tory or Revolutionary, Federalist or Anti-Federalist, National Republican or Democrat. & there were times when the mud was slung by them better than any of could ever do today. The only difference from then & now is the form of the media. I remember even as a child we considered some papers Republican or Democrat. So, how did we come to buy the myth that the media wasn't biased? & that what it said was the unvarnished accurate truth? Because they said so. Well the fact is we have learned that the emperor has no clothes. The emperor may not be happy. Too bad. A new age has dawned! 1 that is actually a return to the way things have always been, a free for all exchange of ideas that challenges us to think for ourselves & search out the truth. The truth IS out there & it CAN be found. & in searching it out & proclaiming it we make our country & our world a better place, despite the garbage out there. Keep up the good work everyone.

(Speaking of good laughes check out The Onion article on Myanmar dictator Than Shwe's alledged attempt to be TIME's Man of the Year.)