Posted on 12/22/2002 3:35:21 AM PST by kattracks
NEW YORK, Dec 22, 2002 (AP Online via COMTEX) -- The FBI agent who wrote a scathing memo on FBI intelligence failures and women who blew the whistle on corruption at corporate giants Enron and WorldCom were named Sunday as Time magazine's Persons of the Year.
The magazine's editors chose Coleen Rowley, Cynthia Cooper and Sherron Watkins "for believing - really believing - that the truth is one thing that must not be moved off the books, and for stepping in to make sure that it wasn't."
Time managing editor Jim Kelly said the women embody a critical struggle facing the country - how to restore trust in disgraced institutions, from major corporations to the Catholic Church.
"It's their modesty that's so becoming," Kelly told The Associated Press. "All three are just resolute in standing up for what is right. All three of them are made of very strong character."
Rowley, 48, wrote a letter to FBI Director Robert Mueller in May criticizing the agency for ignoring evidence before Sept. 11, 2001, that hinted of an attack. She later told the Senate that the FBI was mired in bureaucracy and "careerism."
Cooper, 38, a WorldCom internal auditor, alerted the company's board in June to $3.8 billion in accounting irregularities. A month later, the telecommunications giant declared the largest bankruptcy in U.S. history.
Watkins, 43, sent memos in August 2001 warning Enron chairman Kenneth Lay that improper accounting could cause the company to collapse. The company later filed for bankruptcy, and Watkins resigned as a vice president last month.
Time's cover story on the three women compares them with Sept. 11 firefighters as heroes chosen by circumstance.
"They were people who did right just by doing their jobs rightly - which means ferociously, with eyes open and with the bravery the rest of us always hope we have and may never know if we do," the magazine writes.
Last year, Time editors selected then-New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani for leading the city's response to the Sept. 11 terror attacks. Critics suggested Osama bin Laden should have been the pick as the year's top newsmaker.
The 2002 picks are unusual because the vast majority of the magazine's Persons of the Year have been long-established public figures - world leaders, war heroes, corporate chiefs.
In an interview with Time editors, Rowley, Cooper and Watkins - nationally unknown before this year - said some colleagues now hate them for shedding light on the mistakes of their superiors.
"There is a price to be paid," Cooper said. "There have been times that I could not stop crying."
The magazine's Persons of the Year package includes profiles of the women and a joint interview of the three, conducted earlier this month. The issue hits newsstands Monday.
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On the Net:
Time magazine: http://www.time.com
By ERIN McCLAM Associated Press Writer
Copyright 2002 Associated Press, All rights reserved
These'll be flying off the shelves as Mr. & Mrs. America eagerly delves into the journalistic nuggets within.
The lust for the Almighty Dollar wins out; Time knows what moves news.
/sarcasm
AOL Kills!
That said, recall the choice for 1991, Ted Turner. The magazine's editors inspired gales of laughter when they said, "WE didn't know Time Warner had a stake in Turner Broadcasting!!" The company bought Ted out later. Talk about "independence."
Or as Wolcott Gibbs wrote in his famous parody, "Where it will all end, knows God!"
It's all in semantics; since the term "whistleblower" has an honorable connotation, no way was it ever used insofar as Linda; she was morphed into the backstabbing ratfink category.
On the other hand, it is much harder to blow the whistle when your life is threatened.
Funny. That was my first thought. I'm proud to be in the "Great Minds Think Alike" category with you.
I'm on it right now. Who's with me???
Time needs a Freepin'!
Yep, this is merely Time's way of trying to resurrect a failed Democrat campaign strategy. Too little, too late, too... (yawn).
Man, my first thought also, along with all the other brave souls, many of them women, who were courageous enough to stand up (and suffer greatly) to the evil Clintons and the criminal DNC.
Where is the Time Magazine cover for true heros like Gary Aldrich or Kathleen Willey? If Time had listened to Aldrich there would have been no 9-11 or sale by the democrats of our missle and nuclear tecnology to the ChiComs.
In point of fact, Time is part of the enormous smear machine against true whistle blowers and is part of the endless cover-up efforts.
Time is intellectual toilet paper, no longer a serious magazine. You get more honest news from The Enquirer!
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