Time magazine picked US President Barack Obama as its "Person of the Year 2012" on Wednesday. Time's managing editor Richard Stengel wrote that "We are in the midst of historic cultural and demographic changes, and Barack Obama is both the symbol and in some ways the architect of this new America." The magazine concludes, "In 2012, he found and forged a new majority, turned weakness into opportunity and sought, amid great adversity, to create a more perfect union."

It's not a surprising choice. Many have already noted that since 1927 when Time magazine began the selection, all reelected presidents have been chosen as Person of the Year at least twice. In 2008 Time named Obama as the Person of the Year as he had become the first African-American president in history.

His 2012 reelection, in Time's eyes, is an even more incredible feat.

The magazine's lavish compliments on a series of historical breakthroughs Obama realized in the past four years do not necessarily represent the views of the public.

According to Time reader poll results published on December 14, the readers of Time have picked North Korean leader Kim Jong-un as this year's Person of the Year. Kim received 5.6 million votes, whereas Obama received less than 90,000.

While Time announced that the reader poll was "completely unscientific," some netizens commented that Obama did not bring significant change to the US as he promised.

Just this week, he has been confronted with gun control and fiscal discipline issues, two of the many nagging issues that plague the US.

On the other hand, Kim's lightning measures over the past year reassured the domestic North Korean public.

It seems that mainstream US media have a tacit guideline of "political correctness," which mirrors the political prejudices among many Western elite observers. Domestically, they see mainstream figures as the most important ones that influence society and change history. But when it comes to other countries, especially those who do not follow their lead, the media stick to their "selective standards," even though their choices are not representative of those societies' mainstream attitudes.

This might also be the reason that Foreign Policy, another mainstream magazine in the US, surprised many Chinese last month when they picked the top 100 global thinkers and listed Chen Guangcheng as their top choice from China. It's hard to say that they still stand on a serious, rational base when they judge countries they see as "others."

Countries around the world are going through an era of complex diversification.

While picking out the persons or groups who in their eyes help society succeed and thrive, the US may need to take a more objective view when it seeks symbols in other countries who have had real impact.