Four finalists compete for Time's Person of the Year for 2020

By Barbara Goldberg

 

FILE PHOTO: Joe Biden walks past solar panels while touring the Plymouth Area Renewable Energy Initiative in Plymouth, New Hampshire, U.S., June 4, 2019. REUTERS/Brian Snyder

 

NEW YORK (Reuters) -Time Magazine names its Person of the Year for 2020 on Thursday, choosing the winner from nominees that include healthcare workers battling the COVID-19 pandemic, the racial justice movement and two U.S. presidential election winners.

 

The news magazine will reveal at 10 p.m. Eastern its selection for the title that signifies "who affected the news or our lives the most, for better or worse," Time said on its website.

 

Teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg last year became the youngest individual winner of the accolade. The 16-year-old Swede inspired young people to take action in 2019 against climate change, grabbing headlines when she regularly skipped school to demonstrate outside Swedish parliament in a push for her government to curb carbon emissions.

 

The Person of the Year is usually an individual, but multiple people who greatly affected the nation and the world have been named. Time started the honor in 1927.

 

The winner will be serenaded during a television special by the K-pop group BTS, which on Thursday was named Time's Entertainer of the Year. The seven-member band from South Korea, one of the world's most popular, last month got the first major Grammy Award nomination for a K-pop band. Its English-language single "Dynamite" debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 charts over the summer.

 

This year's four finalists include Joe Biden, who is due to be inaugurated as the 46th U.S. president on Jan. 20, after winning a "historic and unprecedented election," Time said. "He broke former President Barack Obama's record for the most votes ever cast for a presidential candidate."

 

U.S. President Donald Trump is also in the running. "Since losing the election, he's baselessly claimed that there was fraud and falsely said that he's the winner," Time said. "His Administration has been highly criticized for its response to the COVID-19 pandemic."

 

Battling the deadly pandemic are frontline healthcare workers and infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci. Together they are the third finalist under consideration.

 

While the virus that has claimed 1.57 million lives globally has put the world on hold, healthcare workers soldiered on. (https://graphics.reuters.com/world-coronavirus-tracker-and-maps/)

 

"They risked their lives and in doing so, saved countless other lives," Time said.

 

"One of those frontline workers, who spends part of his day doing rounds at the hospital, is Dr. Anthony Fauci, the leader of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and the most visible scientific leader in the U.S. in 2020."

 

The fourth 2020 title contender is the global movement for racial justice, sparked by the killing of George Floyd, a Black man who died after a white police officer knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes in May in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

 

"In the midst of a worldwide pandemic, protestors took to the streets, demanding action to fight racial injustice at the hands of police and any entity that embodies systemic discrimination," Time said.

 

"There have been some positive outcomes since the movement started but it's far from over."

 

(Reporting by Barbara Goldberg; Additional reporting by Jill Serjeant; Editing by Richard Chang)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2020-12-11

 

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2 hours ago, webfact said:

U.S. President Donald Trump is also in the running.

4 minutes ago, Phuketshrew said:

 

2 hours ago, webfact said:

"who affected the news or our lives the most, for better or worse," Time said on its website.

 

Joe Biden and Kamala Harris got it congratulations good pick imo I’m sure donald will be furious lol I expect a major tweet storm brewing lol

Clearly the whole thing is a fraud. It has to be. I' not in contention. Same goes for the Nobels. And Miss America, too.

Typical idiotic American style. They like the best, the highest, ...  superlatives without any common sense. They chose the people in the limelight. Then why not chosing "the worst person of the year in the US"? There would be a big favorite.

 

Now daubt, there are people who behaved/worked very well for the nation. Therefore well known in the medias.

The real person/s of the year are not reported by the medias, because they don't see or notice them. In general, that are people acting/working in hidden areas, be it in the US, China, GB, Europe, Australia, Thailand or anywhere else. There they are not or seldom elected as the real "Person of the year". Only a few examples

• young boys or girls taking care for their parents, brothers and sisters, when papa or/and  mama are so sick that they cannot move and work anymore and are unable to earnt one Cent or Penny.
• women or men, who take care for their disabled children, although they themselves have big health problems, and are poor
• singles, who have disabled, mentally or critically ill children, but no financial support
• the list goes on

Finding the "person of the year" is a typical media hype, fabricated for their own interests.

 

 

Oh dear how sad.

 

The toys will be flying out of the pram, a few more sackings of prominent loyal aides should calm him. ????

This one's for you Mr ex Pres!

 

 

Are Texas, Sidney Powell and the Trump Organisation going to the SCOTUS to fight this? “The Cranken Released”

Several trolling posts have been removed.

 

1 hour ago, Thailand said:

This one's for you Mr ex Pres!

 

 

The quote from Time Magazine is priceless and poignant in this time of steep division and pandemic. Congrats to Biden and Kamala. 

 

"For changing the American story, for showing that the forces of empathy are greater than the furies of division, for sharing a vision of healing in a grieving world," Time said, explaining its choice.

Fair enough and congrats to Joe and Kamala, they really deserve this. And they did so much more than American emergency first responders in a global pandemic, and others who acted selflessly for the benefit of others. The 2 of them should be a shoe-in for the Nobel also. Great. No idea what either of them did, but great.

3 minutes ago, TopDeadSenter said:

Fair enough and congrats to Joe and Kamala, they really deserve this. And they did so much more than American emergency first responders in a global pandemic, and others who acted selflessly for the benefit of others. The 2 of them should be a shoe-in for the Nobel also. Great. No idea what either of them did, but great.

They didn't kill 200,000 fellow Americans...that's a good start.

Great choice!  But I would have been happy with anybody but Trump.  

So many people do not understand what this "award" means .

It isnt the best person of the year , its the person "who affected the news or our lives the most, for better or worse," 

If the Covid virus was a person, Covid would had won it this year

4 hours ago, Thailand said:

This one's for you Mr ex Pres!

 

 

I suspect that Time put Mr. Trump on the finalist list just to troll him. Well, I hope so anyway!

1 hour ago, Jingthing said:

I suspect that Time put Mr. Trump on the finalist list just to troll him. Well, I hope so anyway!

100%

1 hour ago, Surelynot said:

They didn't kill 200,000 fellow Americans...that's a good start.

Be fair. I used Canada as a baseline comparison to American. I multiplied its Covid deaths by how many times bigger The USA was than Canada. The number I came up with was a mere 180,000.

14 hours ago, webfact said:

U.S. President Donald Trump is also in the running

 

Is .! they mean was .. Mr Trump appears to making a habit of losing this being the latest .. though you can't help but think that Time were lining him up with his inclusion for some inevitable public ridicule .. but it would come as no surprise if there is an incoming volley from the Presidential Twitter account shortly about being robbed , lawsuits , taking it to the Supreme Court , etc .. 

Edited December 11, 20205 yr by Justgrazing
Sp