UPI en Español  |   UPI Asia  |   About UPI  |   My Account
Search:
Go

Kim Jong Un is Time readers' Person of the Year

With a lot of help from 4Chan, Time readers named North Korea's Kim Jong Un Person of the Year.
|
 
UPI/Stephen Shaver
UPI/Stephen Shaver 
License photo
Published: Dec. 13, 2012 at 12:07 PM
By KATE STANTON, UPI.com

North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un is the people's choice for Time magazine's Person of the Year. With 5.6 million votes, the Onion's "Sexist Man Alive" beat out Jon Stewart, Undocumented Immigrants, Hillary Clinton, Malala Yousafzai, Ai Weiwei and the Mars Rover.

Kim is the reader's choice, but that doesn't mean he'll land Time's Person of the Year cover. That decision ultimately stands with the magazine's editors.

“While we don’t make our selection based on the poll results,” Time's executive editor Radhika Jones said in a recent Q&A, “it’s always interesting to see where some of our preferred candidates end up.”

Time even gave a shout out to the always enterprising 4Chan users who managed to manipulate the Time poll for the second time in three years.

However, some of the highest vote tallies got a boost from members of Internet forums like 4Chan who launched a campaign to manipulate the results pushing North Korea’s supreme leader to the top of the list.

4Chan users also organized the list results so that the first letters of each name spell out "KJU GAS CHAMBERS," a reference to the reported brutality of North Korean prison camps.


Recommended Stories
© 2012 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Any reproduction, republication, redistribution and/or modification of any UPI content is expressly prohibited without UPI's prior written consent.

Order reprints
Join the conversation
Most Popular Collections
'Star Trek Into Darkness' screening NBC upfronts Met Ball 2013
'Great Gatsby' premieres in New York Spire raised on top of One WTC 2013: Celebrity break ups and divorces
1 of 14
The 2013 Billboard Music Awards
View Caption
Singer Miley Cyrus arrives at the 2013 Billboard Music Awards held at the MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada on May 19, 2013. UPI/Jim Ruymen
fark
18' 8" Burmese python, about 10 pair of boots, caught on side of the road
Amazing: Matching all six Powerball numbers. Fark: On a ticket you bought too late
Photoshop Dr. Tobias Fünke, who is ready to be inserted anywhere
Oklahoma tornado thread continued. LGT live updates/streaming
Attention all highly experienced, seasoned employees of RollingStone.com: your new boss is the 22-year-old...
ACTUAL HEADLINE: Big rig carrying fruit crashes on 210 Freeway, creates jam