Rachel Maddow is very, very excited about her interview with Jon Stewart tomorrow. After being a guest on the Daily Show and openly being a big fan for so long, she finally has the opportunity to discuss with Stewart his role in the greater political arena. But as exciting as tomorrow’s talk is for her, it isn’t exciting enough for any of the ads her crew came up with, apparently taking a page out of Don King‘s promo book.

Former Dean of the White House Press Corps Helen Thomas is making news again after granting her first broadcast interview since her controversial retirement (she first broke her silence in a brief interview with Mediaite). While printed accounts of the 35-minute radio interview have focused on her inflammatory remarks, subsequent apology, and her opinions of flashpoint politicians Christine O’Donnell and Sarah Palin, they ignore a portion of the interview that packs an emotional wallop.

Legendary ex-White House correspondent Helen Thomas has largely been quiet since June, when the 90-year-old reporter abruptly retired after making waves with a statement disparaging Israel (in case you forgot, here’s what she said: “Tell ‘em to get the hell out of Palestine…. They should go home… [to] Poland, Germany.”) Today, though, Thomas told her side of the story.

In celebration of Gay Pride Month and in honor of this important anniversary, Mediaite contributor Robert Newman arranged a series of magazine covers – each “featuring an artist, personality, historical event, or publication of significance in gay history” – and released one per day throughout the month of June on his Newmanology facebook page. Here are some of the highlights from the collection:

The murky Alvin Greene plot in South Carolina thickens. Remember two days ago when some in the media were panicking that the American-dream-gone-wrong that is Orly Taitz would become an official Republican Party candidate? That actually happened, except it happened to the Democrats, with Alvin Greene. Now that it’s time for him to meet the press, he’s having trouble answering hardball questions like “What kind of campaigning did you do?”

After being robbed of what is considered to be a legendary achievement in baseball, it must be hard to come up with words to express the feeling. That was overt this afternoon in Detroit Tigers pitcher Armando Galarraga, who was deprived of a perfect game by an umpire mistake Commissioner Bud Selig refused to amend.

Poor CNN can’t catch a break. Their birthday presents included a slam from Keith Olbermann and a retraction request from ACORN slayer James O’Keefe. They were falsely accused of looking for “the good side” of the BP oil disaster story. And now Chris Matthews uncharacteristically attacked the one thing that seemed to be going well for them this week: the fact that President Obama sat down with Larry King.

Houston schoolteacher Sheri Lynn Davis, caught on tape beating one of her students, is making the media rounds today to test out the legal defense axiom, “the more time you spend on TV, the better the chance that people will forget the horrible thing you did.” While she got to wet her feet this morning on Good Morning America, it wasn’t until her interview with Shepard Smith later in the day that she was challenged to answer for her behavior beyond simply having lost control.

There are many reasons why The Daily Show is the most trusted name in fake news, but at the top of this list is their uncanny ability to equate childish political conversations to children’s entertainment references and their exquisite use of puppet humor. Last night, perhaps inspired by Glenn Beck‘s new sidekick, Disneyland Chairman Mao, Jon Stewart landed an exclusive interview with his own Chairman doll: Muppet Michael Steele.

Big Government– where else?– operative Jason Mattera dug through the original House health care bill from November to find an obscure gem allocating tax dollars to “treating ‘perpetrators of child sexual abuse who are Indian or members of an Indian household.’” Outraged that the health care bill would specifically cover child molesters, he went to seek answers from Congress’ most rational and polite liberal member: Alan Grayson.

Sometimes even Karl Rove wants to travel to a simpler time. With the release of his new book slated to drop this Monday, Courage and Consequence: My Life as a Conservative in the Fight, Rove is making the 2000 presidential election an issue again by admitting to some of his worst mistakes as the ‘Architect’ of Bush’s first campaign.

Though digital magazines were conspicuously missing at the iPad’s debut, Interview, according to the HuffPo, previewed its digital brethren last night at its 40th anniversary party at the Hudson Hotel’s Good Units. The Factory would be proud on so many levels, except that the video was not made available in any viral form. Ew.

Just a few days after asserting that his past troubles with domestic violence, steroid use, alimony, and the IRS were “not an embarrassment” to the Democratic Party, Illinois Lt. Governor candidate Scott Lee Cohen took to a local bar to announce his exit from the race. Cohen’s departure was to be expected after a shocking [...]

Esquire, Fortune, Playboy, Vanity Fair, New York: End the War on Christmas Magazine Covers! Who knows, magazines might even increase those newsstand sell-through numbers that are all doing so terribly if they just get back into the holiday spirit. To make a case, we’ve collected the Top 20 Christmas Magazine Covers of All Time.

Bill Simmons is many things to many sports fans: a popular ESPN columnist, an influential Twitterer, and now, the author of a New York Times #1 bestselling book, The Book of Basketball.

Mediaite recently spoke to Simmons about the pressures of fame and bestsellerdom, his feelings about a fanboy named Will Leitch, and his plans to take over the Power Grid:

We’ve all witnessed the rise, fall and rebirth (repeat) of those special creatures who have been famous since childhood. This fall, a few glossy magazines have reserved their cover spot for women who came of age under the spotlight, but with new projects (and new bodies!) they seem to be doing all right. But which cover most successfully documents the embattled maturation of a child star? Cover Wars decides.