Time's "Person" of the Year

Well, Time Magazine came out with their annual "Person of the Year" issue today and my eyes nearly rolled out of my head.  Time's Person of the Year is "The Protester".

First of all, I find the whole idea of personifying an idea nauseating.  I think it really got out of control when in 1988 they named "The Endangered Earth" as person of the year.  Then, in 2006, the ultimate cop-out.  The "Person of the Year" was "You".  If you remember, the issue has a nice little mirror-like reflector on the cover.  That was our "participation trophy".  Everyone wins!  Congrats on showing up!

Of course, traditionally, the Person of the Year hasn't always been a positive figure.  Adolf Hitler was the 1938 Person of the Year and Josef Stalin was the selection in 1939 and 1942.  So, is "The Protester" considered as a positive or negative influence by the editor of Time?  The impression that I got from the interview below is that "The Protester", particularly those in the Middle East involved in the infamous "Arab Spring" contributed positively to the world.  That is really quite unbelievable, but I don't expect much more from a publication that will lump together the Arab Spring with the Occupy Wall Street movement and proclaim this vast collection of people as "Person of the Year" while COMPLETELY and purposefully ignoring the Tea Party movement and not even including a mention of them in the 2010 Year in Review issue.

With all the bemoaning of Fox News and how they are a supposed "puppet" of the Republican Party and the Tea Party, where is the similar outrage for this obviously left-leaning magazine that poses as an objective publication?