Hmmm… Time Magazine’s 2008 list of the “100 Most Influential People” has quite a few familiar and not so familiar faces on it this year. A rather interesting mix.
Conspicuous by his absesnse from the list is an octegenarian German cleric who has his own micro-state in Europe. Not all that well known, but you might have seen brief glimpses of coverage (if you were watching closesly) of his recent visit to America. Rumor has it, he signed up and took a White House tour when he was here. (Maybe he was in the group of Girl Scouts rumored to have also toured that day…)
I suppose it is possible that a man who has made the cover and front page of newspapers and magazines around the world who leads a church of 1.1B, and got constant coverage for a visit he made to America ranks as the 101st most influential person in the world.
(BTW, the Dalai Lama was here at the same time the Pope was… Maybe I just don’t get the cable channels his all-day coverage was on.)
I can’t say I particularly covet secular accolades for the Pope in the secular media. It doesn’t bother me that they don’t.
More to the point, I am rather embarassed for Time which is either demonstrating a great deal of ideological bias or perhaps it is the case that the writers of this magazine don’t themselves actually read Time on a regular basis… If they did, they would likely begin to notice that Benedict XVI seems to get a lot more press than such a supposedly uninfluential person would otherwise garner.
How odd.
When Pope Benedict passes unto his eternal reward, we will see what sort of TV coverage his funeral gets around the world. And than we will compare it one day to:
- Jacob Zuma’s (#8),
- Kevin Rudd’s (#10),
- Ben Bernanke’s (#12),
- Brad Pitt or Angelina Jolie’s (#21),
- Oprah Winfrey’s (#22),
- Mia Farrow’s (#24),
- Kaká’s (#29),
- Wendy Kopp’s (#53),
- Miley Cyrus’ (#59),
- Takashi Murakami’s (#78),
- Indra Nooyi’s (#79) or
- Michael Arrington’s (#100)
I bet the next time Shinya Yamanaka & James Thomson visit Washington and New York, half a million people will try to get tickets to go to any event they hold at the nearest baseball stadium!
Oh Time, how silly and uninfluential you have made yourself look!
The Black Cordelias 
That list is REALLY out of touch. It’s the list of an insular, isolated elitist mindset.
[…] The Black Cordelias wrote an interesting post today on Pope left off Time’s list of influential peopleHere’s a quick excerptHmmm… Time Magazine’s 2008 list of the “100 Most Influential People” has qui […]
Why am I not surprised? The secular media covers the Pope grudingly and will try to diminish the influence of the Church (and religion in general) whenevere it can. What else can you expect from a media sector that values sensationalism and advertising dollars more than truth and justice?
http://www.time.com/time/specials/2007/article/0,28804,1725112_1726934_1726935,00.html
I don’t understand the the furor about the pope being left off the Time
100 list. It looks to me like he is at #59–up from #111 in 2007. I’m wondering if we’re talking about the same list.
Kay
Kay, I think we are not. See: “100 Most Influential People”
He is not on it at all.
“For it is written: I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the prudence of the prudent I will reject. Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this world? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?
For seeing that in the wisdom of God the world, by wisdom, knew not God, it pleased God, by the foolishness of our preaching, to save them that believe. For both the Jews require signs, and the Greeks seek after wisdom: But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews indeed a stumblingblock, and unto the Gentiles foolishness: But unto them that are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men.
For see your vocation, brethren, that there are not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble: But the foolish things of the world hath God chosen, that he may confound the wise; and the weak things of the world hath God chosen, that he may confound the strong. And the base things of the world, and the things that are contemptible, hath God chosen, and things that are not, that he might bring to nought things that are: That no flesh should glory in his sight. But of him are you in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and justice, and sanctification, and redemption.”
Oops!
1 Corinthians 1:19-30
Thanks “A Simple Sinner.” I was looking at the list the people chose. Interesting that they would leave him off the list, but it does indicate how out of touch some media is with reality.