Over at Time, they held a round-table to brainstorm candidates for their annual selection of "person of the year."
The panel was predictably esoteric, ranging from the verbose earnestness of Brian Williams to the incisive wit of Seth Myers, with stops for the thoughtful contributions of chef Mario Batali, law professor Anita Hill, pledge-enforcer Grover Norquist, and actor Jesse Eisenberg.
The discussion was actually pretty interesting. All the panelists -- except Williams, who picked Steve Jobs -- selected someone connected with the populist movements in America and the Middle East.
But it was left to Seth Myers to put the right label on the people behind these movements, whether Arab Spring, Tea Party, or Occupiers.
They're angry.
Their incandescent anger shows up in survey after survey. Any institution that ignores or minimizes the strain of anger that animates them does so at its own peril.
And they, more than any other individual or group, "influenced the news most, for better or worse," in 2011. (Time's criteria.)
But Time magazine is unlikely to follow the advice of its own outside panel. So I put together my own cover to memorialize Myer's acumen.
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