In case you missed it, Time magazine’s annual "Person of the Year" was bestowed on YOU, 
"citizens of the new digital democracy." According to the Associated Press, "the winners this year were anyone using or creating content on the World Wide Web."
Of all the YOUs in this fair land, I can’t think of anyone better than Jon Fleischman and FR, the stable of bloggers and the many readers…the ones instrumental in the last year for using and creating content on the WWW that helped drive the digital democracy in California.
Congratulations to all of YOU, but especially to Jon and the FlashReport. Next stop for FR….the cover of The Nation and Mother Jones. That’s when we’ll know we’ve really gone legit.
In the meantime, directly from AP online:
NEW YORK (AP) – Congratulations! You are the Time magazine "Person of the Year."
The annual honor for 2006 went to each and every one of us, as Time cited the shift from institutions to individuals – citizens of the new digital democracy, as the magazine put it. The winners this year were anyone using or creating content on the World Wide Web.
"If you choose an individual, you have to justify how that person affected millions of people," said Richard Stengel, who took over as Time’s managing editor earlier this year. "But if you choose millions of people, you don’t have to justify it to anyone."
The magazine did cite 26 "People Who Mattered," from North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il to Pope Benedict XVI to the troika of President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.
The 2006 "Person of the Year" package hits newsstands Monday. The cover shows a white keyboard with a mirror for a computer screen where buyers can see their reflection.
It was not the first time the magazine went away from naming an actual person for its "Person of the Year." In 1966, the 25-and-under generation was cited; in 1975, American women were named; and in 1982, the computer was chosen.
"I always love it when it’s a person – and it is a person, not a computer or something like that," Stengel said. "We just felt there wasn’t a single person who embodied this phenomenon."
You may think my reference to the FlashReport being the Person of the Year as all in jest, but Time does make a point about how far the use of computers has come since the computer itself was selected the ’82 winner. FR and other political web portal and poli-weblog readers may presently be the anomaly, yet how many of us were going on-line for our political information ten years ago?
The FlashReport and other blogs are now regularly cited in the print media. Unlike newsprint or even statically-timed electronic media and talk radio, blog content and email blasts can break information within minutes, not just at 5 or 11 p.m., or when the morning paper hits the stoop.
A glaring example for me of how far the political blog medium has come, was when I hung with Fleischman one morning a week before the general election. Jon was in San Diego for a Joel Anderson fundraiser and while here, he was also trying to hook a meeting with Duncan Hunter, who had made his presidential exploratory announcement the day prior. (Jon ended up having lunch with Hunter…for about two hours.)
While we both were on our cells coordinating with various Duncan Hunter folks about a meeting, Jon was taking calls from the press person for a now unnamed major statewide candidate for office, who went on to win handily. The press guy was requesting Jon’s upcoming posted reaction to a disappointing campaign-related announcement take into account some ancillary information.
As Jon and the caller went around the mulberry bush, it became obvious to me that this very professional and capable spin-guy had for weeks been calling on a daily basis to keep Jon updated on the campaign’s breaking news and to push what he hoped would benefit his candidate prior to the FlashReport going live with the info and related opinion and/or analysis.
Was I surprised that a good press person would be making media calls? No. I guess I was a bit surprised — although I shouldn’t have been — that Jon’s cell phone was on the routine call list along with the correspondents for the Bee, the Times, the Chronicle, the Union-Trib, etc., etc.
Yes, I am quite aware that blogs — especially political ones — are not yet read by the mass of readers, unlike newspapers. Yet, more and more, those a part of what we call the "echo chamber" are keenly aware of how opinions are formulated, how they are driven, and where others within the activist, leadership, and news-making ranks often go to gather information and — ultimately — to help form their own mindsets.
So, I say kudos to Time for selecting all of us the Person of the Year 2006.
It’s been 31 years since Time selected American women as the annual winner. A phrase was coined back then, that if used today in relation to a woman’s success would likely be considered politically incorrect. On the other hand, it’s very appropriate today for political blogs, especially the FlashReport.
You’ve come a long way, baby.