Time Magazine's 'Person of the Century' Poll
Dateline: 03/15/99Jesus Christ holds a commanding lead over the Prophet Mohammed, Howard Stern, and Optimus Prime
Time Magazine should have thought twice before inviting the entire population of the Internet to vote in its online Person of the Century Poll.
Current stats (subject to change minutely) show Jesus Christ in the lead with 42% of the tally (almost 900,000 votes) and pro wrestler Ric Flair running a distant second with 15%. Battling Adolf Hitler for third place is the Prophet Mohammed. Also currently in the Top 20 are Howard Stern, Kurt Cobain, and Gordon B. Hinckley, President of the Mormon Church.
Conspicuously further down the list are names like Winston Churchill, Albert Einstein, and Gandhi.
I don't think this is exactly what Time had in mind.
The odd returns are the result of the online equivalent of ballot-stuffing (visitors to the Web page are allowed to vote as many times as they like) and shameless Internet stumping on behalf of the most unlikely candidates. Participants in special interest forums on subjects ranging from rock stars to Buddhism have posted direct links to the poll's Web location and urged others to click and vote as often as possible.
There are also chain letters circulating, the most successful of which is clearly the "Vote for Jesus Christ" alert:
Passing along info I received:
VOTE FOR JESUS CHRIST
Time Magazine is allowing us to vote for Time Magazines Person of the Century, which will be in their December 1999 issue. I propose that
we can vote for Christ.
Each of us knows at least one person with email. CONTACT THEM. Pass this on to everyone you know. Let's start a wave of votes for Jesus Christ-Person of the Century.
To vote go to:
When you get to the site you must write Jesus Christ in exactly this way. Upper case J, Upper case C; all the rest lower case. Apparently the
poll is case sensitive and writing it any other way does not allow your vote
to be counted as Jesus Christ.
Remember to PASS THIS ON to everyone you care about.
PS From what I heard the winner of the poll will have their picture on
the front cover of the magazine in Dec 99, which should be a challenge
for the graphics department at TIME!!! And so far Jesus is leading!!!
The bit about the winner of the poll having their picture on the cover of the magazine is false, by the way. Time will indeed select a Person of the Century at the end of the year, but according to a disclaimer on the Website, the online poll is strictly informal. In fact, the actual winner will almost certainly be culled from the list already being compiled of the 100 Most Important People of the 20th Century.
Feel free to cast your vote in any case. (And don't forget there are two E's in my last name!)
Subject: FWD: Fw: [Fwd: Time Magazine's Person of the Century]
http://www.pathfinder.com/time/time100/ toppersonmain.html
