04.21.11 [EatYourKimchi] Time Magazine Snubs Rain

Time Magazine had its annual poll of most influential people around the world.  Rain won!  WOOHOO!  Look what they wrote for him!

The South Korean pop star turned actor Rain, 28, took the top spot in the TIME 100 reader poll for the third year, trouncing competitors from Barack Obama to Lady Gaga. THAT’S PRETTY IMPRESSIVE ONLINE POWER FOR A GUY WHOSE MAIN CLAIM TO WESTERN FAME IS A ROLE IN THE 2009 FILM NINJA ASSASSIN. (emphasis mine)

Source

Wow!  That was so nice of them to say.  Wasn’t it?  Actually, no.  It was quite rude.  It sounds more like “wtf? This guy has done nothing since 2009.  Why did he win the poll?”

Compare what they wrote for Rain to what they wrote for other people.  They wrote more for a Cricket Player, Oprah, and a Virus Hunter.  Rain’s explanation is roughly half the size the picture they used for him.  Come on!

Time Magazine sure doesn’t think that Rain is that important.  If he didn’t do anything since 2009, according to Time, then why include him on the list for 2010?

It seems clear to me that they knew who they wanted to write about, who THEY thought were important, and who they decided were the winners before the poll even started.  No?  Or did they say to themselves “Yeah!  We should put Rain on our poll, even though he did nothing of importance last year.  That sounds reasonable!”

Quite frankly, Time magazine just wanted your traffic.  The poll was just a way to get people to go to their site.  They knew that hoards of Rain fans – who otherwise wouldn’t read their magazine or visit their site – would come to the poll in droves and vote for Rain.

It’s great business for Time, because of those pretty little ads they have on their site.  You come to their site, give them ad money, vote for a winner, while they don’t give a damn about your vote, and collect ad revenue.

Am I saying that you should stop voting or boycott Time?  Not at all.  It’s great that you’re giving Rain more recognition around the world.  This isn’t a call to action on anyone’s behalf, apart from Time Magazine’s.

Dear Time Magazine: try a little bit harder next year in pretending to care about your voters.  If you’re going to have a poll, then honor the poll, and the votes of the millions of people who otherwise don’t care about your magazine.  Next year you will put Rain on the poll again (that ad money sure is sweet, isn’t it?) and even if Rain does nothing you think is worthwhile again, he will still win the poll, AGAIN.  If you don’t like the results, don’t make the poll open to all.  And when he wins again, please try to write something better next time than ”and here you have the most influential whatever, bla bla bla, Rain.  Whoop-di freaking doo”

source: eatyourkimchi