By Sean Yoes, AFRO Baltimore Editor, syoes@afro.com
Many anticipated Time Magazine would name the current occupant of the White House their 2018 “Person of the Year.” Instead the venerable publication honored the entity Donald Trump has declared the “enemy of the people” with that distinction, including an Annapolis news organization that endured tragedy earlier this year.
On June 28 five members of the Annapolis Gazette staff, Rob Hiaasen, Rebecca Smith, Gerald Fischman, John McNamara and Wendi Winters were allegedly gunned down by Jarrod Ramos, who has been charged with murder in the shootings. He is set to stand trial in June 2019. Time also honored others who were killed or faced great peril in pursuing journalism.
This combination photo provided by Time Magazine shows their four covers for the “Person of the Year,” announced Tuesday, Dec. 11, 2018. The covers show Jamal Khashoggi, top left, members of the Capital Gazette newspaper, of Annapolis, Md., top right, Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, bottom left, and Maria Ressa. The covers, which Time called the “guardians and the war on truth,” were selected “for taking great risks in pursuit of greater truths, for the imperfect but essential quest for facts that are central to civil discourse, for speaking up and speaking out.” (Time Magazine via AP)
“This year we are recognizing four journalists and one news organization who have paid a terrible price to seize the challenge of this moment: Jamal Khashoggi, Marria Ressa, Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo and the Capital Gazette of Annapolis, Maryland,” Time Editor-in-Chief Edward Felsenthal wrote in an essay for the Person of the Year edition.
Felsenthal made the announcement today (Dec. 11) during NBC’s Today Show.
“The Gazette, one of the oldest papers in America, did what it’s done since before the Revolution, got a paper out the next day (after the June 28 attack) and continues to do so with courage,” Felsenthal said.
Time crafted multiple magazine covers to acknowledge (Time says the distinction is not an honor or award) the members of the press they selected. Trump was the number two 2018 Person of the Year and Special Counsel Robert Mueller was number three.
