Yesterday, when Time Magazine announced that “The Protester” would be 2011′s “Person of the Year,” the choice seemed destined to drive all conservative commentators into a tizzy (perhaps on purpose; get more headlines, sell more copies). In fact, from the instant the announcement was made, many in the Mediaite office couldn’t help but thinking, “Oh, man. Glenn Beck is going to have a field day with this.” Beck, of course, being the guy who predicted at the beginning of the Occupy Wall Street movement that protesters would soon be shooting rich people in the street. So, we were pretty shocked when Beck explained on his radio show yesterday that he thought it was a perfect choice and that the current movements for social change are the most important parts of-

Oh, I’m just kidding. He hated it.

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.

Guys, incredible news! Somehow, someone snuck cameras into the headquarters of a bunch of major American news outlets to see how they’re biases inform their reporting on the Occupy protests! What’s even more incredible is that the editors of these outlets all seem to look like the same three popular New York-based comedy actors! And what’s even more incredible than that is that the first site to break this story is the comedy video site Jest!

…ok, maybe this is just a comedy sketch. It’s still pretty darn hilarious.

Apparently America likes their tea to be herbal. At least that’s what a new poll from Time Magazine shows. The country-wide poll finds that Americans have a strongly positive view of the Occupy Wall Street movement, much more so than that of the Tea Party.

I guess people really do like hippie, Marxist, mass-murderers after all. But why?

A TIME poll taken on October 9 and 10, with a base of 1,001 people, has turned up some interesting results about how Americans view the Tea Party, Occupy Wall Street, and dysfunction in Washington. 81% of respondents think the country is on the wrong track, but they’re reluctant to place the blame fully on President Obama for the problems; 50% of the respondents disapprove of the way he’s handling the job, but 59% believe that he cares about them, and half of the respondents say he has the toughness necessary to see this through. On an exceedingly grim note, only 4% of the 1,001 polled feel positive about the state of the country today.

Time faced a tough challenge in sorting out their cover for this week. Earthquakes and hurricanes aside, the end of Gaddafi‘s 42 year reign was arguably the week’s biggest story. Time has traditionally marked fallen tyrants on their covers with big red x’s scrawled across their face; Osama Bin Laden being the most recent example, and with Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, Saddam Hussein and Adolf Hitler in the past. In vein, they used a black x to mark Japan’s surrender from WWII. But Gaddafi has not yet offered himself up for surrender, nor can anybody find him. He’s not so simply, ready to be big-red x-ed out, gone.

On Sunday morning’s The Chris Matthews Show, host Chris Matthews asked his panel to debate Time Magazine‘s recent cover story on the existence of Hell. This isn’t new territory for Time, who drummed up controversy (and sales) by asking “Is God Dead?” in 1966, and as panelist Becky Quick notes, has revisited the topic many times.

Veering off-topic somewhat, Matthews asked “Why does the right wing love the Old Testament so much?”

Earlier today, we reported that right-wing radio giant Rush Limbaugh completely bungled the task of reading Tommy Christopher‘s critique of a Hardball segment comparing the Qu’ran to the Bible. Later in his show, Limbaugh corrected himself, and apologized to Christopher. Mr. Christopher tells Mediaite, “I’m glad Rush corrected the record, and I forgive him, but I cannot accept his apology.”

On Sunday, Mediaite published an article in which I was critical of Time Magazine World Editor Bobby Ghosh for statements that he made on Friday’s edition of Hardball. Ghosh explained why burning the Qu’ran was “much more inflammatory” than burning a Bible. Conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh took issue with Ghosh’s remarks on his Monday morning show, then slammed Mediaite by pointing out… exactly the same thing we pointed out in our commentary.

On Friday’s edition of Hardball, my friend Chuck Todd filled in for host Chris Matthews, and took a look at the implications of a deadly riot that was allegedly inspired by Pastor Terry Jones‘ recent burning of the Qu’ran. Todd was joined by guests James Zogby, President of The Arab American Institute, and Time Magazine World editor Bobby Ghosh, who explained to Todd why burning a copy of the Qu’ran was “much more inflammatory than burning a Bible.”

Geraldine Ferraro appeared on five different covers of TIME, all of them in 1984, when her selection as the Democratic candidate for vice president made history. Perhaps the most famous of the five was the July 23, 1984 cover that called her selection by Walter Mondale “A Historic Choice.”

Here are all five covers, along with a short selection from the TIME story that week. You can find the entire articles at Time.com.

The New Year is here, and with it, the annual exercise in futility that is the New Year’s Resolution. As you stare into the abyss of another 365 days in which to improve yourself, it might help you to know that the figures who make Mediaite go ’round have some things to work on, too. Here’s what we think some of them are saying into the mirror this morning.

So, before you try to shake off that Cold Duck and Four Loko hangover and blearily search for a gym membership you can get out of when you get tired of it after 3 sessions, why not check out our list  of New Year’s Resolutions for Everyone Else?

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.

Time Magazine has released its list of the Top Ten Twitter Moments of 2010, and at least one member of the Twitterati isn’t happy. Mediaite columnist and White House reporter Tommy Christopher, who nearly gave his life in a bid for Twitter celebrity, bitterly rejected the magazine’s snub via his Twitter account. I reached out [...]

TIME‘s Top 10 of Everything of 2010 issue hits newsstands today, and both Sarah Palin and dancing daughter Bristol Palin made the cut–taking Top 10 honors in the category “Best Reality TV Moments of 2010.”

Mama Grizzly Sarah takes ninth place for the highly rated premiere of Sarah Palin’s Alaska. Bristol’s best moment–dancing in a gorilla suit–got her one notch higher into eighth place. That puts both Palins ahead of “The Jersey Shore Takes Miami,” but behind such classic reality moments as The Amazing Race‘s watermelon to the face moment (5th).

Today on Hardball, Chris Matthews discussed Time’s new cover story which featured an interview with Sarah Palin about her potential presidential campaign. After discussing the swipes she made at President Obama, he pinpointed the one thing that makes her so popular: “being a wise ass” and being “good at it.”

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.

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.

Representative John Boehner is having a good few weeks: now that Republicans have won control of the House of Representatives, he’s poised to become the next Speaker of the House. And the media are covering Boehner relentlessly–in the first two weeks of November, he has been featured on the cover of three major weekly magazines.

This week on Real Time with Bill Maher, panelists Fareed Zakaria, Rep. Darrell Issa, Dana Gould, and Washington DC Mayor Adrian Fenty discussed the right wing “echo chamber” and the rapid spread of rumors about the cost of President Obama‘s trip to India. They also took aim at the blogosphere, criticizing blogs for spreading the rumors and criticizing politicians such as Rep. Michele Bachmann for believing things they read on the internet.

This morning, we learned that the vast majority of claims made in political ads this midterm season have been blatantly false. But that doesn’t mean all of those ads have been ineffective.

An AFP story Tuesday ran with the headline, “Gulf focus shifts, but where is all the oil?” The story essentially states that while clean-up efforts are in full swing after the well was finally capped, the crews are not finding very much oil in the Gulf; they’re actually wondering where it has gone. Well, Mother Jones has a response: it hasn’t gone anywhere. In fact, MoJo is criticizing the media for its reporting on the situation.

This week’s Time magazine cover might startle you. It might make you a bit uncomfortable. And that’s exactly what Rick Stengel, the magazine’s managing editor, intended. The cover image shows 18-year-old Aisha, an Afghan woman who, after leaving her abusive in-laws, had her nose and ears cut off by the Taliban. The story’s headline reads: What Happens If We Leave Afghanistan.

As journalism’s existentialist crisis continues, Time magazine has resorted to what many readers dread: an online paywall. Take a look around Time‘s website and you’ll find that print magazine content is no longer freely available. So how can you read it? Buy the print magazine…or the iPad edition.