After a week off due to a bout with bronchitis, Countdown host Keith Olbermann returned to the air Monday night, to the center of the Current TV universe, and to the black backdrop that seems a fitting stand-in for the star’s reportedly tumultuous relationship with his employer. According to a new report by Newsweek, that relationship may be hanging by a thread, and with it, the future of Current’s plan to become the left’s answer to Fox News.

Andrew Sullivan‘s Newsweek story on President Obama angered plenty of conservatives, as the magazine retitled the piece “Why are Obama’s critics so dumb?” and Sullivan, a self-proclaimed conservative, stood up for the president. On tonight’s Anderson Cooper 360º, Sullivan defended his thesis that the President had governed well against Republican strategist Bay Buchanan.

Tina Brown and Newsweek‘s decision to put Andrew Sullivan’s provocative essay (and an even more provocative headline) on the cover was purely about getting people to talk about Newsweek. That was the theory put forth by a Fox News panel during a segment dedicated to…talking about Newsweek. But, as Megyn Kelly proposed at the start, has Newsweek and the mainstream media “crossed a line in trying to get the President reelected?”

Former governor Sarah Palin has some strong words concerning the writer of Newsweek‘s most recent cover story, which asks “Why Are Obama’s Critics So Dumb?”

Glenn Reynolds of the popular conservative blog Instapundit (home of the “Instalanche,” the nickname given to the huge amounts of traffic an Instapundit link can drive) made an unfortunate observation about the Newsweek cover that has so many conservative bloggers in a lather. Rather than focus on Andrew Sullivan‘s titular question “Why are Obama’s critics so dumb,” Reynolds picks on the cover photo, and the President’s “liverish lips.”

ABC News’s Jake Tapper took White House Press Secretary Jay Carney to task over a comment Vice President Joe Biden made to Newsweek, saying “the Taliban per se is not our enemy.” Tapper asked if the language Biden used was regrettable. “if taken out of context.” “It’s only regrettable when taken out of context that I just explained,” Carney responded.

A trio of departures from the Daily Beast and Newsweek to report today: In a move he says has been planned for months now, executive editor Edward Felsenthal has left the Daily Beast, telling his staffers that he is off to pursue other opportunities. Earlier today, it was announced that Daily Beast / Newsweek publisher Ray Chelstowski has been relieved of his duties at the media company, effective immediately, and that managing editor Tom Weber has resigned from his role.

Newsweek/Daily Beast Editor-in-Chief Tina Brown appeared on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, as she does every week, to discuss some of the most notable features in the weekly edition of her magazine. The topic of conversation today centered on the Howard Kurtz article about Fox News chair Roger Ailes, specifically how the dominant cable news channel has allegedly “corrected course” in their coverage, ostensibly going from a predictably hard-charging conservative point of view, to a more moderate one.

Oh, how the mighty have fallen. Once considered a more base-palatable alternative to Mitt Romney for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination, former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty was forced to drop out of the race early after a slide that began with his refusal to confront Romney at a debate over “Obamneycare.” According to Howard Kurtz, Pawlenty went looking for work at Fox News shortly thereafter, but was given a resounding “Fox no!” for his troubles.

The Daily Beast and Newsweek have offered a revealing look at Fox News president Roger Ailes — and it’s interesting not only because it provides additional insight regarding Ailes, the wildly successful businessman; but also provides a rare glimpse into Ailes and his personal life (Example: Don’t try to get between Ailes and a pinch of sea salt!), Perhaps most noteworthy, the piece offers a brief look into the future of Fox News Channel.

Bill O’Reilly is not to be messed with…unless you of course you’re name is Barack Obama. “I have more power than anybody other than the president,” he says in a Newsweek profile this week, meant to coincide with the release of his co-written book, Killing Lincoln. The Fox News host has turned fifteen years on-air into cable news largest viewership, and — as far as he, himself, is concerned — nearly unprecedented power. “I can get things changed, quickly,” he says. “I don’t have to go through the legislative process; I don’t have to do any of that. I can just bring it to the people, and say, look, this has gotta be dealt with.”

Conservative media watchdog Newsbusters has taken appropriate umbrage at Cartoonist Garry Trudeau‘s latest Sunday Doonesbury strip over its use of a sexist (and, frankly, lazy) joke about Sarah Palin‘s breasts. The strip feature Palin on TV telling an interviewer that her recent Newsweek cover story “shows that as president, I’d be totally ready if called on to fill out a tight sweater.”

Michele Bachmann and you are running for president, today is a good day to be you. The congresswoman won the Iowa straw poll, she appeared on every single Sunday news show, and she is steadily building momentum that could lead her to win several primaries in the upcoming election season. So it was only appropriate for CNN’s Reliable Sources to revisit that controversial Newsweek cover depicting Bachmann as… as… well, I’m not quite sure, but it wasn’t exactly favorable.

In an interview with TODAY‘s Lester Holt, Rep. Michele Bachmann said the hotly debated Newsweek cover photo of the congresswoman “really didn’t impact me that much.” Bachmann quickly shifted the conversation away from the “Queen of Rage” cover story and said the nation had received a “punch to the gut” with the stock market drops and debt rating downgrade.

Funny bearded dude Dennis Miller paid a visit to Fox News’ The Factor to discuss the Newsweek‘s silly Michele Bachmann cover, which frankly seems to be bothering everyone… with the exception of Bachmann herself. Miller told Bill O’Reilly that Newsweek‘s Tina Brown is a “mean girl” and that Bachmann shouldn’t trust women on the left simply because they happen to be in possession of ovaries.

Add MSNBC’s Ed Schultz to the growing list of Michele Bachmann’s surprising defenders in the aftermath of Newsweek’s unflattering picture of the presidential candidate. And Schultz even applauds Bachmann for brushing off the controversy. Now with that out of the way, Schultz then is able to return to more familiar territory, letting us know what he doesn’t like about the Congresswoman.

This week’s issue of Newsweek, featuring a cover photo of GOP hopeful Michele Bachmann, has sparked a slew of criticism and brought attention to a still struggling Newsweek. Editor in Chief Tina Brown is a regular on Morning Joe, and host Joe Scarborough flat out asked her “Be honest, you used that photo to make Michele Bachmann look crazy.” Brown’s defense seemed less than convincing, but what did she care, they were talking about her magazine!

That Newsweek cover of Michele Bachmann‘s giving Conan the creeps. “It’s scaring me…those eyes,” O’Brien said on his TBS show Tuesday night. Calling the cover creepy, Conan explained how the image of the GOP presidential candidate has haunted him, transforming the congresswoman from politician to a character in the comic’s nightmares.

It seems that Newsweek‘s cover photo of Rep. Michele Bachmann has already proven to be a game-changer: it got Jon Stewart to defend the Republican presidential candidate for an entire segment– not an easy feat. Stewart blasted the magazine for deliberately finding an unflattering photo of the Congresswoman, arguing “you’ve got to go pretty far” to find an unflattering one, listing examples of Bachmann making “yelling into a bullhorn” look attractive, and giving editor Tina Brown a dose of her own medicine.

Congresswoman Michele Bachmann has finally responded to the controversy surrounding the unflattering photograph and accompanying headline (“The Queen of Rage”) that Newsweek selected for its most recent cover.

At an outdoor town hall in Atlantic, Iowa, the Republican presidential hopeful was asked about the cover. Bachmann says she’s yet to see it for herself, but was then told about the cover line by the individual posing the question, who also added that the image used was a “big close-up” and “wild-eyed.” Bachmann, to her credit, acted as if she didn’t care much about the cover one way or another, and chose instead to shift focus to her campaign and plans for the future.

This afternoon, America Live‘s Megyn Kelly tackled the mounting controversy surrounding Newsweek‘s rather odd choice of picture and headline for its cover profile on GOP presidential hopeful and Minnesota congresswoman Michele Bachmann. Some conservatives, as well as the National Organization of Women (NOW), are speaking out against the cover, calling it sexist and politically biased. Kelly brought on the Daily Caller’s Caroline May to discuss the outcry.

Apparently in response to the uproar over their “crazy” cover photo of GOP presidential hopeful Rep. Michele Bachmann, Newsweek magazine has cleverly published a slideshow of cover outtakes that seems to make the case that Bachmann is incapable of being photographed without sporting the gaze of a Cujo stunt double. Their “See, she always looks crazy” defense is probably appealing to most Bachmann detractors, but I call “bullshit.”

Conservative media watchdog Newsbusters is helpfully defending GOP presidential hopeful Rep. Michele Bachmann‘s honor against those serial cover photo offenders at Newsweek, excoriating the magazine for using a cover photo of the Tea Party fave that makes her “look crazy.” Their hearts are in the right place, but is Newsbusters really helping Bachmann out by starting a national debate about how crazy she looks?

Last Friday, Bill Maher dedicated his “New Rules” segment to fighting socialism’s status as a four-letter word in America. For some who have had hands-on experience with socialist states, this was probably a rather naive stance. But self-avowed socialist Lawrence O’Donnell replayed the segment as a “guest Rewrite,” explaining that he was not a socialist exclusively (perhaps unlike Maher’s definition), but found it bizarre that many refused to accept that all governments were “mixes” of socialism and capitalism.

Tina Brown is planning to extend the Daily Beast’s brand and reach with an online talk show that is being described as having a format similar to that of The View.

According to the Observer, the Newsweek Daily Beast company has already hired producers Kathy O’Hearn, formerly of CNN, and Susie Banikarim, who was “poached from Diane Sawyer.” O’Hearn has previously worked with Brown as the executive producer of CNBC’s relatively short-lived weekly talk show, Topic [A].