Not exclusively a favorable title

In response to the puzzled reader on Wednesday (“Person of the Year: What, exactly, are the title’s criteria?”), Time magazine’s Person of the Year is not, and has never been, an exclusively favorable title. It simply means that the selected person is viewed to be the most significant individual in that year’s events.

Rest assured, Time was not a loyal supporter of Nazism (Hitler, 1938), Soviet Russia (Stalin, 1939 and 1942; Kruschev, 1957), or the Iranian regime (Ayatollah Khomeini, 1979).

Not that Ben Bernanke is on the same level as these fellows, but Time simply felt that he had the biggest hand in our current state of affairs, for better or for worse.

Stephen Kirkpatrick

Mukilteo