Keller @ Large: Time's Hyperbolic Claims About Trump

BOSTON (CBS) -- I have a confession to make: I am not a big fan of Time Magazine's annual person of the year award.

You know the drill. Every December, the editors identify the person or persons who they think have "done the most to influence the events of the year." As you can see, it's a litany of leaders, cultural icons, and so on--not to mention a flagrant publicity stunt.

Nothing wrong with that of course, but Time's desperation to make this award relevant is pretty transparent, as they almost always pick the president-elect, or pop some tendons trying to come up with a trendy cultural choice.

But this year's pick, big surprise, is President-elect Donald Trump, who probably should have been chosen last year. While that's an obvious choice, we could do without Time's hyperbole in defense of it, claiming that "because of Trump…America will never be like it was before."

Really? Hmm. When have we seen time make this same hyperbolic claim about a president-elect?

Why, we only have to go back to the 2008 election of the outgoing president, when time breathlessly wrote that Barack Obama "hit the American scene like a thunderclap, upended our politics, shattered decades of conventional wisdom....Obama has made it clear that he knows how to write new playbooks and do things in new ways."

Now that Obama's thunderclap has been drowned out by the Trump thunderstorm, it's time to tell the truth--the editors of Time don't do a very good job of assessing the past or forecasting the future.

You can listen to Keller At Large on WBZ News Radio every weekday at 7:55 a.m. You can also watch Jon on WBZ-TV News.

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• Donald Trump