If my employer is going to go through the trouble of creating an enormous promotional franchise like the TIME 100, I’ll be damned if I’m not going to get at least a blog post out of it.
The list is up. I should say up front that I had little to do with choosing it, other than throwing in my picks for the massive initial list of candidates that the editors started out with. From there the list goes to meetings, smaller sub-meetings, the Trilateral Commission, etc., and finally we end up with 100 names. Or so.
Of this year’s group, a handful come from the world of TV and media, depending how you define it—including Tina Fey, the ladies of The View, Jay Leno, Zac Efron, Tavis Smiley, as well as perennial 100er Oprah Winfrey, financial guru Suze Orman, Bravo chief Lauren Zalaznick and radio socialist-spotter Rush Limbaugh.
The list—like the TIME Person of the Year—is meant to recognize influence, not necessarily approval. As I said, it is ultimately my bosses’ list, and I do not have enough drinks in me to tell you which picks I do and do not agree with. (I will say that, under the influence of the Tuned In Jrs., I lobbied early for Diary of a Wimpy Kid author Jeff Kinney.) But you are under no such restriction (either regarding the criticism or the drinking before noon). So have at it. And are there any influential folks from TV in particular you’d have added?
