There is a way to send a message to someone who has offended you, who has called you the enemy of the people. TIME magazine has just picked its person of the year 2018 and the whole display of journalists seems like an answer to Trump’s ignominious assault on the media.
In an interview on MSNBC, the CEO and editor of TIME spoke about the difficulty of picking the person of the year at this time when there are so many important events and important people involved in them. The main idea of the designation is to highlight the person or persons who have had the greatest impact on the world.
The choice is called “The Guardians,” referring to the journalists who lost their lives or were imprisoned. The magazine highlights columnist Jamal Khashoggi who was murdered in Turkey by orders of Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman of Saudi Arabia. Runners up were Donald Trump and Robert Mueller at 2 and 3 respectively. Then, later in the week, in an interview granted to Fox News, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that the Saudis had suffered enough and there was no need for additional sanctions.
Pompeo was just echoing Donald Trump’s position that we cannot alienate the Saudis because they are our allies in the Middle East and for another even more powerful reason: they are buying more that 120 billion dollars worth of U.S. goods. But that is not true and the fact checkers showed that Trump exaggerated. That figure was given by Jared Kushner in order to bolster Trump’s claim that he had made a successful deal with Saudi Arabia.
Throughout the years the person of the Year is named regardless of their positive or negative effect on society. By awarding the honor to journalists, the magazine is sending president Trump a direct challenge.
