[Update: 2012-07-27 19:04: Newsweek's Tina Brown has sent a notice to staff: "Barry Diller would like to make it clear that he did not say on the earnings call as reported that Newsweek is going digital in September. He made the uncontroversial, industry-wide observation that print is moving in the direction of digital."]

According to an announcement on Wednesday, Newsweek magazine will "likely" go digital and switch to an online presence. Despite hemorrhaging money for years, the publication has been a steady voice of liberalism, both in the magazine and when contributors and editors appeared on  television. On June 9, 2009, managing editor Evan Thomas famously told Hardball anchor Chris Matthews: "[Barack] Obama's standing above the country, above — above the world. He's sort of God." [See video below. MP3 audio here.]

As the magazine's circulation plunged, the publication became even more shrill. A January 23, 2012 cover story wondered, "Why Are Obama’s Critics So Dumb?" In 2010, liberal editor Tina Brown took over and Newsweek merged with the Daily Beast. Appearing on the July 6, 2011 edition of Morning Joe, Brown compared conservative Republicans blocking tax increases to "suicide bombers."

Newsweek editor Tina Brown published a huge chunk of a letter to the editor objecting to Howard Kurtz’s harsh take on Walter Cronkite. The letter writer? Cronkite’s son Chip. He merely repeated his father’s lame argument that “liberal” means “open-minded,” and isn’t that what a reporter should be?

“Admitting to a liberal philosophy (which he defined as something akin to open-mindedness), while adhering to a career, almost a calling, of the straightest, old-fashioned journalism? This is ‘linguistic hedging’?” Why yes, it is. “His liberal radio editorials were evidence of openness, no?” Why no, they’re not. Why publish hundreds of words of this?

Would you say it was heroic to make a blunder on national television that forces the President of the United States to flipflop on an issue six months before Election Day thereby threatening his chances at the polls?

Newsweek editor Tina Brown did exactly that Wednesday when during an interview with the Huffington Post called Vice President Joe Biden "the hero of the hour" for making what could be game-changing comments about same-sex marriage on Meet the Press earlier this month (video follows with transcribed highlights and commentary):

The world awaits a momentous decision in a few days. According to the New Republic staff, Newsweek editor Tina Brown must decide what Newsweek cover to use to illustrate President Obama's announced support  for gay marriage. To aid Ms Brown in making her choice, the New Republic staffers provided a gallery of illustrations for the Newsweek cover including the Obama rainbow umbrella man at the top of this story.

You can see several of the New Republic suggested illustrations below the fold. I must give them credit for extreme creativity although I am slightly disappointed that they didn't suggest a Tinker Bell Obama with transparent wings hovering above us all while tinkling stimulus pixie dust over the land.

Appearing on the April 16 "Morning Edition" to discuss what NPR tagged as "the contributions of journalists to global culture," Newsweek/Daily Beast editor Tina Brown worked in a gratuitously crude and error-laden slam of the late "right-wing radical blogger" Andrew Breitbart, who, Brown reminds us "dropped dead in [his] early 40s."

Apart from her crass description of Breitbart's sudden death, Brown got the underlying facts of her complaint wrong, furthering the meme that Breitbart deliberately took Shirley Sherrod out of context and hence was responsible for destroying her career: