Taylor Swift, Tim Cook Are Among Finalists for Time's Person of the Year 2014
Taylor Swift, Apple CEO Tim Cook and Ferguson protesters are among the finalists for Time's Person of the Year award for 2014, inheriting the title from last year's winner, Pope Francis.
The honor singles out the year's most newsworthy individuals, meaning controversial individuals such as Russian president Vladimir Putin and NFL commissioner Roger Goodell are on the shortlist of finalists. In essence, the honor isn't for "Best Human Being," but rather for most noteworthy, for good or ill. Putin caught all sorts of hell this year for the Winter Olympics in Sochi, and the related LGBT controversy that accompanied Russia's anti-gay laws. Meanwhile, Goodell is still doing damage control over just how much he knew about the Ray Rice domestic abuse situation prior to the story making national headlines.
However, not everyone on the list has a bad rap. Other nominees include Ebola caregivers, who worked tirelessly to prevent the spread of the illness. Also included are the Ferguson protesters, who took a stand against police brutality in the wake of the death of Michael Brown. Kurdish politician Masoud Barzani, who is taking the fight to terrorist organization ISIS, is also on the list, along with Jack Ma, founder and CEO of Alibaba Group, which debuted on the New York Stock Exchange and quickly became the biggest tech IPO in history.
As for the pop culture names on the list, you've got Swift, who's essentially the ruler of Earth, at the moment. Between the release of her new smash hit album, 1989, and her omnipresence on awards shows, talk shows, reality shows and other media outlets, the back-end of 2014 has clearly been going in her favor. However, Cook has also had a significant 2014, becoming the first openly-gay CEO of a Fortune 500, and earning tons of media coverage over the release of the iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, Apple Watch and Apple Pay.
Who will win? We'll find out this coming Wednesday on TODAY. Until then, check out the finalists for Time's Person of the Year 2014 below:
Music star Taylor Swift
Apple CEO Tim Cook
Ferguson Protesters
Ebola Caregivers
NFL commissioner Roger Goodell
Russian president Vladimir Putin
Kurdish politician Masoud Barzani
Alibaba Group founder and CEO Jack Ma
What do you think of Time's list of eight? If not these eight, whom would you have liked to have seen on the list? Sound off in the comments!
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