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].

It’s been quite the week or so for journalistic ethics given the end of News of the World and the continuing corruption scandal engulfing Rupert Murdoch‘s News Corp/News International enterprise. The Watergate references running fast and loose, Lawrence O’Donnell brought on an expert tonight to explain just how the two scandals compare– legendary former Washington Post reporter Carl Bernstein. In doing so, however, O’Donnell brought down some ethical judgment on himself as Bernstein, now a Newsweek writer, stood up for his magazine.

Lawrence O’Donnell has made a bit of a sub-segment on his program of playing Duck Hunt with what he considered ridiculous presidential threats from sure losers. He first shot down, repeated, the potential Republican presidential bid of Donald Trump, and now that Sarah Palin is “echoing Donald Trump’s looney mantra of ‘I can win,’” O’Donnell is out to make mincemeat of that prospect, too.

Sarah Palin, whose bus tour and movie premiere in, of all places, Iowa recently prompted a new wave of speculation that the former governor has her eye on the White House in 2012. Now, Newsweek‘s latest cover story on Palin has gotten tongues wagging anew. As she told the magazine’s Peter Boyer while in Iowa for that aforementioned premiere of The Undefeated, she believes her chances are pretty good.

The Newsweek editorial predicting what life would be like for Princess Diana made many readers uneasy about resurrecting the dead, but for Fox News’ Liz Trotta, it was no surprise. During her Saturday commentary segment today, Trotta noted that “you can expect more of the same” from editor Tina Brown, who peddles in “the lowest of the low” and is “desperate” to sell her “pamphlet.”

Yesterday, we wrote about the disturbing Newsweek cover and cover story in which Tina Brown and some photoshop artists resurrected Princess Diana. Today on Morning Joe, Brown was asked about the less than thrilled response and she mostly settled on the “no such thing as bad publicity” reasoning.

In honor of Princess Diana’s would-be 50th birthday (if not for, you know, her death) Tina Brown wrote an article called, “Diana at 50: Chilling with the Middletons. Tweeting from Davos. And still the people’s princess. If not for that tragic night, what her life might look like now.” And yeah, that about sums it up.

As Newsweek reports in its somewhat controversial (at least in Salt Lake City) Mitt Romney cover story, Mormons are “having a moment.” How’s that? According to Newsweek, suddenly Mormons are in key positions all over the place, from Glenn Beck (even though he’s moving out of his high profile spot on Fox and into a far-less-certain future on the web) to Romney’s emergence as an early frontrunner for the GOP nomination–and, some argue, the White House–and then there’s the musical. “Even Broadway has gotten in on the act, giving us The Book of Mormon, a big-budget musical about Mormon missionaries by South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone and Avenue Q writer Robert Lopez that, with 14 nominations, is expected to clean up at the Tony Awards on June 12.”

No, Roger Ailes insists, he does not think Sarah Palin is an idiot. Far from it. In an interview with Newsweek‘s Howard Kurtz, the Fox News boss responds to a recent run of lousy media coverage, including two magazine profiles that, in Kurtz’s words, portray Ailes as “power mad, paranoid, and a GOP puppeteer.”

As you are all likely aware by now, Sidney Harman, the former audio magnate who would go on to purchase Newsweek, passed away last week at the age of 92. However, before he passed, Harman wrote one final essay for the news weekly, slated to appear in this week’s issue, about his fight with acute myeloid leukemia. Harman had initially decided not to publish the piece, thinking he had years yet to live and not wanting to alarm anyone regarding his condition.

In the essay, Harman describes the balance he sought to find between focusing on his health while remaining a vital part of his business.

Sidney Harman, the former owner of Newsweek, died last night at the age of 92 from complications of acute myeloid leukemia.

As the merger between Newsweek and the Daily Beast continues to find its footing, 16 of the magazine’s employees have agreed to take a buyout and walk. That’s more than were expected to, meaning future layoffs could be avoided.

Tina Brown isn’t too worried about bloggers weighing in on her latest project – remaking the ailing Newsweek brand into something people will read, discuss and pay for. In an interview with The Guardian, Brown takes the criticism hurled her way (which includes a rather unfortunate and problematic comparison to a hagfish by Gawker editor [...]

Between the Middle East’s sovereignty as we know it breaking down, myriad natural disasters and a less-than-stellar economy, no one would doubt that being the leader of the free world in 2011 is no easy task. Luckily for President Obama, there is some sympathy for him out in the media world– take, for instance, Newsweek editor Tina Brown, who suggested on Morning Joe this morning that “with the world exploding as it is, I have to say that Obama has the worst inbox of any president maybe in history.”

On ABC’s This Week, Tina Brown, Editor-in-Chief of The Daily Beast and Newsweek participated in a panel discussion on “female freedom fighters” across the Middle East and also revealed the new, redesigned cover for the revamped Newsweek.

The U.S. press systematically refer to Libyan leader Muammar al-Gaddafi as a crazy, narcissistic despot whose people are suffering and whose country is in turmoil. But, for a brief slice of time in 2007, people reading through certain U.S. and British publications may have found themselves reading about a new or “changed” Gaddafi, a Gaddafi committed to paving the way for democracy in Libya.

There’s a reason for that.

With so much attention being given to the recent deal between Huffington Post founder Arianna Huffington and Aol, it’s worth it to see what sort of impact this has on other media companies – namely, the recent merger between Newsweek and Tina Brown‘s Daily Beast.

A mansion in the country isn’t a bad place to spend Christmas, especially when you’re a restless, internationally alleged criminal whose most recent bed was in prison. As Newsweek reveals in its newly published photo exposé, Julian Assange spent his holiday season in a calm, relaxing, and at times adorable fashion.

Ten years ago, Arianna Huffington was best known for appearances on the now-defunct Politically Incorrect, and Tina Brown was throwing lavish parties for the now-defunct Talk magazine. Meanwhile, Time was chugging along, covering news and politics just as it had been for decades. It’s this that the publication is trying to seize upon with its new TimeFrames initiative, which begins with a new issue that looks back on the magazine’s coverage of the last decade.

Last week, Newsweek‘s Daniel Stone published a piece with a provocative thesis: that the American presidency “has grown, and grown and grown, into the most powerful, most impossible job in the world.” In other words, says Stone, the presidency is too big a job for just one man or woman to handle alone.

Columnist Charles Krauthammer, however, isn’t buying it.