Time Magazine has announced that it has named Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg the “Person of the Year,” despite the billionaire’s decidedly lukewarm showing in the online poll on their website.
As of last night the leader by a strong margin was WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, with the only close second being Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan.
Needless to say either of them could have been a “controversial” choice: Assange because of the ongoing calls from top US officials to assassinate him and Erdogan because his only claims to fame were his role in criticizing Israel’s attack on the Mavi Marmara and his efforts to negotiate a deal on Iran’s nuclear program – both of which earned him serious scorn among US officials.
It is difficult to fathom how it could not be Assange, however, as he has surely had more impact on foreign policy the world over in 2010 than anyone else.
Not that Mark Zuckerberg is a terrible choice, he’s just a really boring choice, as evidenced by the public ambivalence in the pre-announcement poll. Assange was really head and shoulders above the rest of the list, and it seems it was only the desire to make the announcement as uncontroversial as possible which prevented his selection.
