Time mag won’t say if Assange is ‘Person of the Year’

Time managing editor Rick Stengel will unveil the magazine's annual "Person of the Year" at the top of the "Today" show on Dec. 15. But sources tell the Drudge Report that the editors have already made up their mind on the winner: WikiLeaks editor-in-chief Julian Assange.

Time spokesman Daniel Kile wouldn't say whether that report was true.

"Trying to guess Time's 'Person of the Year' is an annual tradition and one of the great parlor games in journalism; we certainly welcome people guessing, but we never confirm or deny rumors until we reveal Time's choice," Kile said.

For past POY issues, Stengel took the lead in several interviews with winners and finalists. And recently, Time's top editor did sit down with Assange over Skype. So if reading the tea leaves, it looks like Assange is at least a finalist.

But Stengel's Skype interview already ran online and Assange graced the most recent Time cover, so it's unclear if that exclusive has any bearing on the special end-of-the-year issue.

Besides Drudge, there was also POY buzz on Twitter Tuesday after lots of people tweeted that Assange -- currently ranked first in the reader's poll -- had been removed from the list. It sounded like a juicy media story. But in reality, the Time poll being picked up in the Twittosphere as evidence that Assange was disqualified was actually last spring's Time 100 poll.