The “celebritization” of America and maybe the world is complete. Every week, I check to see what Time magazine is saying about the nation and the world. I’ve done that just about every week for as long as I can remember. For a moment, I thought I was looking at People magazine, not Time magazine. Was this the 100 most beautiful people issue of People magazine with a Time magazine cover? No, Drew Barrymore was on that cover.
In 1999, Time magazine started a series that would capitalize on the annual “Person of the Year.” They put together a list of most influential people and rightly placed Albert Einstein on the cover of Time as the most influential person of the century. It was one of their best selling covers so as good capitalists will do, they have done a list of “Most Influential People” every year since.
When you think of the most influential people in the world, who do you think of? I am pretty sure whether you ask that question in 1920, 1980, 2007 or 2020, most people would name the President of the United States in the top 10—but not Time magazine. George Bush didn’t even make the top 100 this year for them.
I’m a “red-state” mama who spent most of the weekend in church with 400 young people attending a conference on purity in a challenging world. My older children came home from college this week and in between the massive amount of reading that I do - I do their equally massive amount of laundry, meet their friends and attended the birthday party of my mother in law where buffet style American food was served. I am sure the average self respecting media elites will stop reading at this point. They know I am one of those right wing nuts who go to - church. Yikes!
Now for the fun part, who made the list of the top 100 people of influence in a world of billions of people? Among leaders and revolutionaries, the elites at Time chose Raul Castro - the acting ruler of Cuba and brother of Fidel - exactly who has Raul influenced? Has he made a speech or even a decision? It’s pretty clear from this list of “leaders” that Time magazine prefers despots to free and democratically elected officials.
It wasn’t all bad for the Bush Administration - Sec. of State Condi Rice, General David Petraeus and Chief Justice John Roberts made the list. Of course, Senator Hillary Clinton and Senator Barack Obama made the list, but Karl Rove didn’t. To steal a phrase from a colleague I heard over the weekend, “who do you think is more influential, Karl Rove” or any senator in the United States Senate? And by extension, if President Bush isn’t on the list - even as a lame duck - it is saying that he is less influential than Hillary Clinton or Nancy Pelosi (who made the list). Come on! What would they have to talk about if they weren’t bashing President Bush?
After looking at the list of leaders, I thought I couldn’t be shocked anymore, but then came artists and entertainers who influence the world. Honestly, I had to laugh at the list, so that I wouldn’t cry at the irrelevancy of this issue of Time magazine. Can Time magazine really say with a straight face that Borat and Leonardo DiCaprio influence the world? For that matter, what has Kate Moss or Justin Timberlake done to influence the world? Entertainment is what it is - these are entertaining people and they might influence fashion and language trends but they are replaceable with whoever the next diva or heartthrob or comedian will be. All in all, these entertainers ought to concentrate on entertaining and Time magazine ought to keep this in perspective.
Maybe in Rosie world - and Rosie O’Donnell made the list, the world is a better place with these influencers - 100 strong named by Time magazine. Thankfully, it’s just a list made by a magazine that has lost its place in the world. Maybe they will be a news magazine again one day. There is a great tradition of Time magazine reflecting America - they do not reflect the America that I live in and I am thankful for that.
