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Julian Assange Could Be Time's 'Person Of The Year', And Is Also Still Not Dead (time.com) 145

Long-time Slashdot reader cstacy noticed Saturday that Julian Assange hadn't made any communications or public appearances in six weeks. But today an anonymous reader writes: Julian Assange is still not dead, reports The Inquisitr, noting "the WikiLeaks founder made his first appearance in weeks, speaking with an interviewer for a conference in Beirut" including comments about the recent death of Fidel Castro.

Assange is also in the running to be chosen as "Person of the Year" in Time magazine's annual online reader's poll, and last Monday even moved briefly into first place, inching past Donald Trump. "It's worth noting that the poll presents people alphabetically," Time reported, "so Assange is the first option participants consider and Trump comes near the end of the poll."

I think the poll's being hacked by state actors, since Vladimir Putin now leads with 38%, followed by Theresa May (16%) and North Korea leader Kim Jong Un (13%), and Donald Trump is locked in a tie for fourth place with India Prime Minister Narendra Modi at 9%. Time worked with Opentopic and IBM's Watson to assemble the initial list for reader's votes, which also included Apple CEO Tim Cook and FBI director James Comey. Surprisingly, a few celebrities also turned up on the list too, including comedian Samantha Bee, Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda, and Olympic gymnast Simone Biles.
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Julian Assange Could Be Time's 'Person Of The Year', And Is Also Still Not Dead

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  • by YesIAmAScript ( 886271 ) on Sunday November 27, 2016 @06:47PM (#53373699)

    Not by an online poll at the very least.

    This is a reader poll. It's a different thing and like any other internet poll it means very little.

    • Indeed. He already won a prior reader poll, and Time chose someone else. There's no reason to think they won't do the same this time as well.
    • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

      by unixisc ( 2429386 )

      TIME, aside from the usual Lib bias, has a bizarre sense of newsmakers. Last year, they made it Angela Merkel. In 2001, they made it Osama. They'll give it to anyone unless he happens to be a Republican achiever that year. From what I recall, President Bush never got it.

      If the poll is being hacked, good for them! Ideally, it should be Trump, since he had been firing on all cylinders throughout the year, not just since the Dem convention. Wikileaks came into the picture only at the DNC convention, w

      • by quenda ( 644621 ) on Sunday November 27, 2016 @08:45PM (#53374203)

        They'll give it to anyone unless he happens to be a Republican achiever that year.

        Achiever? I'm not sure you quite get what the "award" is for. Past "winners" include Hitler, Stalin, and even Henry Kissinger.

        From what I recall, President Bush never got it.

        HW got it, and W twice. You mean Jeb?

        • By achiever, I mean someone who achieved the most in a given year. Like in 2001, when Osama got it for 9/11, Bush should have gotten it, since he toppled the Taliban by the end of November or mid December. I do stand corrected on his getting it, though.
          • by quenda ( 644621 )

            Bush should have gotten it, since he toppled the Taliban by the end of November or mid December.

            Does not look like much of an achievement from here. Not that I think any other president would have succeeded in either invasion either. Give the award to GWH Bush for taking intelligent advice to contain and _not_ invade neighbouring Iraq.
            The Taliban is alive and well, held back from Kabul only by an unsustainable flow of cash from the US to local warlords.

          • Bush wouldn't have done any of what he did were it not for Osama, which to me makes Osama a better candidate. Good or evil don't really come into it at all, just the influence the person had on the world.

            I'd probably argue that Trump would be the best candidate this year. If you look at the historical results, there's a pretty strong tendency for newly elected presidents to receive the award as everyone since H.W. Bush received the award the year of their election, and both George W. Bush and Obama recei
          • They don't give it to the person who "achieved" the most. They give it to the person they believe to be the most influential. That's why Osama Bin-Laden got it.

          • By achiever, I mean someone who achieved the most in a given year. Like in 2001, when Osama got it for 9/11, Bush should have gotten it, since he toppled the Taliban by the end of November or mid December.

            Actually, Rudolph Giuliani got it in 2001. Dubya the year before. Osama never did. Thanks for trying.

            Oh BTW, the Taliban are still doing their thing. Mission accomplished.

          • "By achiever, I mean someone who achieved the most in a given year. Like in 2001, when Osama got it for 9/11, Bush should have gotten it, since he toppled the Taliban by the end of November or mid December. I do stand corrected on his getting it, though."

            Fake news. Osama never got chosen. 2001 Man of the Year was Giuliani. W was man of the year twice, in 2000 and 2004, same number as Obama and Clinton (2-term presidents) and one more than Bush Sr. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_Person_of_the_Year#Perso

          • Comment removed based on user account deletion
          • by Rakarra ( 112805 )

            Osama SHOULD have gotten it for 2001 -- no one else had such an affect on world affairs, certainly not Bush, and absolutely not the winner that year, Rudy Giuliani.

      • You have strong opinions about something you apparently no next to nothing about.

        Osama never got it. Bush got it twice. At least you managed to get Merkel right. 1 out of 3 ain't bad I guess...

        And you really don't think Bush, Bush, Bush, Gingrich, Giuliani, Nixon, Nixon, and Reagan were Republican?

    • by Maritz ( 1829006 )
      Considering previous winners (Hitler) and the current roster of candidates, why don't they just call it Cunt of the Year?
      • Considering previous winners (Hitler) and the current roster of candidates, why don't they just call it Cunt of the Year?

        IOW Trump.

  • No one is happier that Donald Trump won the election, including Mr. Trump himself.
    For Assange, it literally might have been a life-or-death matter: she wanted to kill him (at least, that's how he perceived it). If anyone sponsored the email hacking, it was probably him.
    • by Anonymous Coward

      Assange doesn't have the funds and probably also not the influence.
      In any case, the whole "russians are hacking us" is mostly paranoia.

      • And furthermore (Score:5, Insightful)

        by Okian Warrior ( 537106 ) on Sunday November 27, 2016 @07:31PM (#53373905) Homepage Journal

        Assange doesn't have the funds and probably also not the influence.
        In any case, the whole "russians are hacking us" is mostly paranoia.

        "Mostly" is being generous.

        Assange took the unprecedented step to say specifically "it was not the Russians [rt.com]". He has stated that they never reveal their sources, so to go that far (eliminating Russia gives information about the actual source) he probably felt the fear-mongering was a prelude to a declaration of war, or at least minor hostility.

        (And to be fair, it sure looked, at the time, that America was ginning up for a fight with Russia.)

        And as for Clinton wanting to kill him, she specifically asked in a meeting "can't we just drone this guy [twitter.com]", apparently was not joking, and as a result of the meeting the aides sent her a list of "legal and non-legal strategies [dailymail.co.uk]" for dealing with assange.

        But then again, this could be fake news. Hillary doesn't remember [politico.com] joking about Assange, and Snopes has the "drone strike" claim listed as "unproven".

        (Note: The "legal and extra-legal" link is to a copy of the actual memo sent to Hillary.)

        • I never understood how people could easily fall for the obvious misinformation that Trump was Putin's favourite and Clinton somehow hated him. You didn't actually listen to him and believed him, did you? Clinton is the one who has a very cosy relationship with Putin and is only publicly puting up a front.
    • Time magazine, being mainstream American corporate media, would do well to give Trump the nod in order to try and get into his good graces and thus increase the odds of access. Paraphrasing CBS' Les Moonves who told the audience at the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media, and Telecom Conference [theintercept.com], such a move would not be good for America, but it could be very good for Time Magazine.

      • I don't know, New York Times hasn't been very pro-Trump, but they managed to get an interview somehow.
      • Time magazine, being mainstream American corporate media, would do well to give Trump the nod in order to try and get into his good graces and thus increase the odds of access.

        You mean in the same way they made Hitler the Man Of The Year. Yeah, makes sense.

  • by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 27, 2016 @06:56PM (#53373747)

    Trump is always in the news either because of his own scandalous mouthing (or thumbing) off or because of his haters' constant hate and prejudices. He basically won the highest position on Earth by being in the news all the time.

    With his "influence", he already killed the TPP as a side-effect of not yet taking office and he moved the powerful USD up and down for the past 6 months.

    Maybe undisclosed "Russian hackers" can be runner up..

    • Not just that, Ford canned plans to move out of Louisville, KY, and Castro, who had survived 10 US presidents, couldn't even wait for this one! Trump's very aura killed him }:-)
    • As much as the leftist media hates Trump, they were completely unable to shut up about him all year long. I was worried the word "TRUMP" would be burned into my TV screen from flipping to the CNN story title. Their incessant coverage probably put him over the finish line.
      • by Maritz ( 1829006 )
        It's cute that americans think they have 'leftist' media. You don't. And yes, their incessant coverage of Trump is what got him elected. Future elections will basically be a race to see who is the biggest freak.
  • Hitler was also named man of the year. It's not about who was the "best" person of the year just the most influential.

    • When Trump wins Man of the Year, expect that a bunch of idiots will equate the two.

      • Yeah pretty much every president since WW2 has been named Person of the Year at least once.

      • When Trump wins Man of the Year, expect that a bunch of idiots will equate the two.

        Well, he does make the comparison pretty easy.

        http://i2.cdn.cnn.com/cnnnext/... [cnn.com]

        • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

          by Mashiki ( 184564 )

          Don't worry, we know. You're still pining for Hillary, hate to break it to you but she lost. Maybe you can pine on Obama a bit more and his peace prize, and all the wars he's started.

          • Maybe you can pine on Obama a bit more and his peace prize, and all the wars he's started.

            Eh? Obama has not started any wars... I get your point though, he has not exactly earned the peace prize. He changed nothing concerning America's war stance.

            • by Mashiki ( 184564 )

              Eh? Obama has not started any wars...

              Really? So he didn't launch weapons at Pakistan, Somalia, Yemen, Libya and Syria. Gotcha. Those aren't wars, they're just lobbing of high-explosive munitions for the purposes of dirt farming.

      • When Trump wins Man of the Year, expect that a bunch of idiots will equate the two.

        Some of his supporters already do. So yeah. Idiots.

    • Woah... Trump and Hitler mentioned in the same thread, and without being a Godwin. I looked back to see if that was true (it is), and as it turns out, Stalin was also person of the year. Twice, in fact: 1939 and 1942. Another historic note, from Wikipedia:

      Since the list began, every serving President of the United States has been a Person of the Year at least once with the exceptions of Calvin Coolidge, in office at time of the first issue

      Like or loathe him, it's hard to argue that Trump hasn't been one of the most influential people of the year.

      • Doh. I didn't copy the entire Wikipedia quote. Here's the rest:

        ... Herbert Hoover, the next U.S. president, and Gerald Ford.

      • by ras ( 84108 )

        Like or loathe him, it's hard to argue that Trump hasn't been one of the most influential people of the year.

        In what way? The only thing I can think of is blowing an extraordinary amount of hot air. Extraordinary is in italics because he's US politician in an election year, so a very high bar has been set by his co-competitors in the hot air stakes. Yet he didn't get just beat them. He clobbered them so hrd they still don't know quite what happened. It was an amazing performance. It's what got him elec

        • He's done nothing beyond telling us what he is going to do.

          As opposed to Obama, who won a Nobel Peace Prize just for getting elected?

          US Presidents, or even US President-elects are, almost by definition, extremely influential people. I'd say that this campaign has been unlike any I've ever seen, between two of the most polarizing candidates I could imagine, and the *most* polarizing candidate actually won, despite the incredible amount of baggage he had.

          By the way, Hillary certainly would have properly been Person of the Year had she been elected. I think it's mor

        • "man" because this "person" crap is another piece of unnecessary PC

          No it isn't. If you're awarding a 'man of the year' award, doesn't it sound strange to give it to a woman? Isn't that because the word man, means male? What's wrong with wanting to name an award that's open equally to men and women, without resorting to calling it "man or woman of the year"?

          • "man" because this "person" crap is another piece of unnecessary PC

            No it isn't. If you're awarding a 'man of the year' award, doesn't it sound strange to give it to a woman? Isn't that because the word man, means male? What's wrong with wanting to name an award that's open equally to men and women, without resorting to calling it "man or woman of the year"?

            And that's ignoring the winner of 1982. Spoiler: The Computer.

    • by SeaFox ( 739806 )

      Hitler was also named man of the year. It's not about who was the "best" person of the year just the most influential.

      Yeah, but Time went all P.C. several years ago with their sections. Note that Rudolph Giuliani, mayor of NYC, was named Person of the year in 2001 because of the WTC attacks, when obviously Bin Laden himself was more influential.

      • I don't know if that's PC, or just self preservation. I think that if Time had named Bin Laden as person of the year, they would have had their offices firebombed. More than once.

  • Better choice (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Kohath ( 38547 ) on Sunday November 27, 2016 @07:01PM (#53373769)

    Nigel Farage

    • As an achievement, it was as big. Except that in the aftermath of that, there was genuine uncertainty, and a court ruling that Parliament has to ratify that has put roadblocks on the way, which may or may not be surmounted. Whereas Trump's election is a fait-accompli - even if a recount overturns WI and MI, it can't overturn PA: this is more a stunt by Jill Stein to make money, since she is under no obligation to return any donations if the recount is not accepted/approved.
    • He will only accept if he gets paid in currency other than sterling.

    • That would cover Brexit and Trump winning the US election.

      You could say the "working white male" if you want to try to avoid some hot wires.

  • by youngone ( 975102 ) on Sunday November 27, 2016 @07:13PM (#53373815)
    Ivan Vicelich should be man of the year

    Also everyone should come to my apartment to see my cats.

  • Big whoop (Score:3, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 27, 2016 @07:16PM (#53373825)

    Big whoop, I was Time's Person of the Year 2006. Didn't mean a thing.

  • by zedaroca ( 3630525 ) on Sunday November 27, 2016 @07:22PM (#53373865)

    I think the poll's being hacked by state actors, since Vladimir Putin now leads with 38%, followed by Theresa May (16%) and North Korea leader Kim Jong Un (13%),

    Then realized it was part of the summary, so probably not a joke.
    The editors in Slashdot are really pushing on the (Russian) state actors hacking tale. Why would state actors act on Times' online poll? If they did, why would they put up these results?

    Times' poll was hacked by 4chan before. Kim Jong Un won in 2012 thanks to them [dailydot.com], the magazine just discarded the results.

    • by Anonymous Coward

      I think you give 4chan a bit too much credit there at the end.

    • by Mashiki ( 184564 )

      Times' poll was hacked by 4chan before. Kim Jong Un won in 2012 thanks to them, the magazine just discarded the results.

      No, no it wasn't. Typical garbage coming out of a clickbait site. Time records votes by cookie, delete the cookie and you can vote again. Some online polls have gotten better requiring more then that like tying to a IP for X number of hours. What the fuck has happened to /. when people can't tell the difference between actual hacks, and simple reset/deletion/temporary-allow scripts that you can write in greasemonkey.

      • Times' poll was hacked by 4chan before. Kim Jong Un won in 2012 thanks to them, the magazine just discarded the results.

        No, no it wasn't. Typical garbage coming out of a clickbait site. Time records votes by cookie, delete the cookie and you can vote again. Some online polls have gotten better requiring more then that like tying to a IP for X number of hours. What the fuck has happened to /. when people can't tell the difference between actual hacks, and simple reset/deletion/temporary-allow scripts that you can write in greasemonkey.

        Irony: Stop them if they're wrong, but be damned sure they're wrong. If you're going around the original intent and repurposing a thing to your ends instead of the original ones, you're hacking. What they didn't do was crack the poll or hack into the poll. But they most certainly did hack the poll.

  • They're not going to have another bogus vote again this year I hope.
  • Why don't they do something radical. Make the person of the year a group of people.
    Or even better, make it the readers!
    Or something that isn't a person at all. Like an internet server or something. Genius!

    • It wouldn't be the first time they chose a group of people: Ebola fighters (2014), Protester (2011), You (2006)

      This year, it could be "The Protectionist Voter" -- which covers both Brexit and election of Trump.
  • The story says it's a poll of online READERS.

    I find it hard to believe that Time still has readers.

  • by PhrostyMcByte ( 589271 ) <phrosty@gmail.com> on Sunday November 27, 2016 @07:47PM (#53373963) Homepage

    The Assange/Wikileaks situation has been a bit weird for the past month, and no strong proof of life has been shown. Going with an audio interview is just going to fuel all the conspiracy nuts in /r/WhereIsAssange [reddit.com].

  • I dislike him intensely and I think he's a horrible person, but most of us (I believe anyway) didn't think he would win and yet he did.

    Like him or not, disagree with the electoral college or not, he will be the next President.

    I'm not even sure what Modi has done this year to even be in the running (screwed up their current bank note fiasco?)

    Putin, May and Fatty Kim haven't done anything nearly as impressive or shocking as what trump has done - again, just my opinion of course.

    If Brexit were a person eligibl

  • "Appearance" (Score:3, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 27, 2016 @08:03PM (#53374027)

    If you mean shitty audio and uncharacteristic commentary, then yeah, "he" made and "appearance".

    He has not been seen alive with any evidence since Oct 20th, period end of story.

    • If you mean shitty audio and uncharacteristic commentary, then yeah, "he" made and "appearance".

      He has not been seen alive with any evidence since Oct 20th, period end of story.

      That was when he hit the boom gate with the sign "MAX. HEADROOM: 2.3 M"

  • So trump making it the list is a genuine act of voting but Putin making the list is 'state agents'?

    • So trump making it the list is a genuine act of voting but Putin making the list is 'state agents'?

      It's rigged! The whole election is rigged!

      Er, wait

  • Perhaps Putin is doing well in the polls not because his mythical hackers are doing it, but because we are still in the middle of an 18-month, 10+ billion dollar propaganda campaign that hoped first to prevent a Trump win, and, that having failed, is now spreading the idea that his win was not because of his populist/nationalist message, but the result of Russian hackers.

    If half of the country genuinely believes that Trump's victory was the result of Russian interference, is it surprising really that Putin

    • Obviously the DNC hacks and the fake news campaigns weren't the only factors in his win, but I think it's safe to say that it pushed him over the top. Putin did something nobody would have thought possible, I can see him getting the win.
  • It's the selection of which person had the biggest impact on shaping world events for the year. That's why Adolf Hitler was PotY in 1938. Not because Time thought he was a great guy, but because his actions sent shockwaves throughout the world. (Stalin won in 1939 for signing a non-aggression pact with Hitler thus allowing WWII to grow into the behemoth it became, rather than nipping it in the bud with a two-front war against the Nazis.)

    In that respect, Julian Assange is a braindead choice. He goes i
    • And while Trump's election was a big deal, he hasn't actually done anything (except win an election), and won't until late January 2017. This isn't the Nobel Peace Prize which you can win just because they think you're going to do big things.

      For the last 20 years just winning the US Presidential election was enough to get it. There have only been 4 occassions since 1964 that the newly elected President wasn't given it, and on all of those occasions that person got it the year before or during that term...

      • And while Trump's election was a big deal, he hasn't actually done anything (except win an election), and won't until late January 2017. This isn't the Nobel Peace Prize which you can win just because they think you're going to do big things.

        For the last 20 years just winning the US Presidential election was enough to get it. There have only been 4 occassions since 1964 that the newly elected President wasn't given it, and on all of those occasions that person got it the year before or during that term... It is an American publication after all.

        Well, they certainly will name Trump POTY next year, after his assassination by one of his disappointed voters because he ran America into the ground again.

    • by Shimbo ( 100005 )

      Theresa May is an attempt to give credit/blame for the Brexit vote to a single individual

      Hardly, she was on the losing side. She just didn't campaign strongly enough to alienate leavers.

  • Julian Assange Could Be Time's 'Person Of The Year', And Is Also Still Not Dead

    Perhaps Time know something we don't...
  • ... unless Trump is named Man of the Year.
  • While I don't think Assange is a criminal or should be thrown in prison, by many accounts a slimeball, so hopefully not person of the year.

    If anyone it should Snowden. Though I see in looking at the list the "Whistleblowers" won in 2002 so perhaps they think that might be a duplication.

    I'd not be surprised if it is Trump. Certainly the most newsworthy of 2016 anyway, won when no one apparently thought he would.

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