During a rundown of the latest news on Wednesday night’s Chelsea Lately, host Chelsea Handler went over Time‘s naming of The Protester as its “Person of the Year.” She did not seem impressed. “So, there’s an issue you can skip,” she said, before pausing and adding, “I am happy, at least it’s not a Kardashian.” [...]

After being heavily derided for naming mid-aughts sensation Mark Zuckerberg as its 2010 Person of the Year, Time Magazine has bounced back and gotten it right this year. The magazine has named “The Protester” its 2011 Person of the Year, which, the magazine notes, marks a rather miraculous comeback for that form of political action. In 2011, political protests literally changed the world, and even made something of a dent in the American cultural landscape.

Well, it’s pretty clear WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange can get himself booked on The View.

The hosts chuckled at TIME‘s selection of Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg as Billionaire Person of the Year, conceding that, sure, Facebook is clearly a global big deal and Zuckerberg’s obviously smart.

But the Viewsters say the guy who’s really POTY-worthy is Assange.

Let’s hope all this attention–and now status as TIME‘s Person of the Year–won’t go to Mark Zuckerberg‘s head. He is, after all, a 26-year-old billionaire and the guy who has control over basically every picture you’ve posted online in the last three years.

The announcement was made live this morning on NBC’s TODAY by TIME managing editor Richard Stengel.

Every December, Time names a “Person of the Year”—the individual or entity that, in the magazine’s estimation, has had the greatest impact on the news either for good or for ill. The process for naming 2010′s recipient kicked off last night, when Time hosted a Person of the Year panel in Manhattan’s Time and Life building.

Last night, Bill O’Reilly had Time Magazine managing editor Rick Stengel on his show to discuss Time‘s decision to name Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke as their Person of the Year. After Stengel explained their decision to put Bernanke on the cover (over the Kardashian sisters, as O’Reilly suggested), the conversation turned to print as a medium. According to O’Reilly, Newsweek isn’t going to survive.

Right after the announcement on NBC’s Today show of Time Magazine’s Person of the Year, Ben Bernanke, NBC’s cable outlet MSNBC had a very appropriate guest.

Rep. Ron Paul – who just wrote the book “End the Fed” – was on set at Morning Joe this morning. He understood the decision by Time.

After all of the speculation that Barack Obama was going to be Time‘s Person of the Year for the second year in a row, the award went to … Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke. Since announcing the pick, Time has been sending signals that seem to say that President Obama, who was announced to be a finalist for the award on Monday, but was not really in contention after all:

So it’s that time of year. Everyone is trying to figure out who the most important person of the year is. Time will be releasing their pick shortly (though they have been known to apply the term “person” loosely). So: Who is the most important person of the year? Capt. Sully over President Obama? Have your say.

It’s time again for Time magazine to choose their “Person of the Year” — but it may not be a person! An esteemed panel including Dr. Oz thinks it might be Twitter or The Economy. What are the chances? Phil Bump doesn’t like taking chances, so he breaks it all down by statistical probability: How likely is it that the Time “Person of the Year” will actually be … a person?