Who will be Tabloid Baby's Journalist of The Year and Person of The Year for 2008?

When we give out our year-end honors, we wait for the end of the year. We don't write them up in November or agree on the finalists when there are still four weeks in the year to go and miss out on the most choice contenders, as happens with so many death roll calls (see The New York Times Magazine). So now, with mere hours left in 2008, we figure it's time to add up the votes from the Tabloid Baby staff, readers and pals and announce our people of the year.

To be honest, last year's Person of The Year and Journalist of The Year contained a tinge of journalistic cynicism amongst the optimism, but both turned out to be pretty good harbingers and influences for 2008.

Our Journalist of The Year for 2007 was Harvey Levin, the shaved bronzed midget frontman for the corporate porn-pushing gossip site TMZ.com and its whitewashed syndicated sister. "Who did more damage to entertainment reporting in 2007 than Harvey Levin?," was the query we posed. "In 2007, he and his gutter operation did indeed wield that dagger and in the process almost singlehandedly transformed Hollywood entertainment reporting into a gutter-level street battle fueled by self-hatred, jealousy and anger, with no concern for what once determined greatness, excellence or fame."

The title we bestowed on Harvey led other news organizations to take a closer look. Even Playboy magazine asked our editor to weigh in on its Levin coverage. And hoist by its own mantard, TMZ.com the noxious website sank to the same irrelevancy as its camp, inconsequential whitewashed syndicated television version-- less a journalistic force than a distasteful obscene Internet embarrassment to its corporate overlords at AOL Time Warner.

People noticed.

Michael Lohan, our 2007 Person of The Year, lived up to the expectations we had a year ago when we wrote that we "look forward to new grand schemes and projects, more unexpected headlines." Paternity questions and fights with Lindsay's lesbian love aside, Michael has found fame in his own right, is headed to Sundance next month with more than one project and only this week launched his own website as he continues his quest to get out the "the truth."

Harvey Levin failed in his quest to kill tabloid. Thanks in part to Michael Lohan, Tabloid Lives.

So tonight, we announce

Tabloid Baby's 2008 Journalist of The Year

and

Tabloid Baby's 2008 Person of The Year.

Stay tuned...