JOURNALISM IS A TEAM SPORT, THE SAYING GOES, and that’s particularly true at TIME, where our co-founder Henry Luce helped pioneer the notion of “group journalism” nearly a century ago. To begin the process of choosing the Person of the Year, the entire staff gathers each fall—in person and patched in from around the world—for a spirited kickoff debate. As ever, the suggestions this year were fascinating and wide-ranging.
But as we narrowed our focus in the ensuing weeks, a connective thread emerged among the top contenders: the increasingly slippery nature of truth, and the many ways information is being used and abused across the globe. The world faces enormous, increasingly global problems that will require collaborative solutions, and yet what hope do we have if we cannot agree…