Drew Faust Parties in New York In the NY Post, Keith Kelly reports on the Time magazine party for its list of the 100 most influential people in the world.

Drew Faust sat at a table with Michael Bloomberg, hedge fund billionaire Stephen Schwarzman, and Time Inc. CEO Ann Moore.

That must have been interesting....

It is, however, an absurd list. The guy who jumped onto the New York subway is on it; George Bush is not.

America Ferrara, the star of "Ugly Betty," is on it. George Bush is not.

And in a case of magazine wussiness, Time didn't rank the list. (If they did, Bush's absence would have been particularly glaring.)

Every magazine editor knows that you have to do the countdown from 100 to 1; that's the whole point of those lists, which aren't meant to be taken too seriously, but are meant to be discussed and debated. (That's why ranking them is so important.)

Here's a good one from Blender magazine: The 50 Craziest Pop Stars Ever.

Time obviously wants to have it both ways—to exploit the marketing advantages of such a list, while also suggesting that they're serious about it, and would never do something so crass as rank the most influential people.

New editor Rick Stengel does not impress.....  ¶ 8:58 AM