Newsweek's Michele Bachmann Cover Sparks Controversy

Newsweek editor-in-chief Tina Brown is stirring up controversy again over another cover.

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A month after sparking debate over a cover image that was edited to make it look like a 50-year-old Princess Diana was walking alongside Kate Middleton, Brown has decided to use an image of presidential hopeful Michele Bachman on the cover that makes her look, as Yahoo's Cutline blog puts it, "crazy."

Specifically, the photo -- which features the headline "The Queen of Rage" -- shows Bachman, a Republican representative from Minnesota, with intense eyes and a half-smile.

"Michele Bachmann's intensity is galvanizing voters in Iowa right now, and Newsweek's cover captures that," Brown tweeted Monday.

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Bachmann's press secretary declined to comment when reached by Yahoo, while the politician herself deflected a question from a voter in Iowa.

But a slew of conservatives attacked Brown over her decision.

"Under the editorial control of Tina Brown, the rice paper magazine barely struggles against its bias towards conservative women to view them with anything other than contempt," Dana Loesch wrote on Andrew Breitbart's website BigJournalism.com.

Added Ed Morrissey on HotAir.com: "Memo to conservative women. When approached by Newsweek or Time for a cover story, always bring your own photographer."

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Some tweeters made jokes about the cover image, saying it wasn't that out of the ordinary.

"Honestly, I think the greater technical feat would be Newsweek shooting a photo of Michele Bachmann NOT looking crazy," quipped Conan writer Rob Kutner.

Added Florida radio DJ Randi Rhodes: "'Baggers up in arms because Newsweek took a pic of Bachmann that looks like half of the other pics of Bachmann."

Before Brown took over, Newsweek raised eyebrows over an extremely close-up photo it published of Sarah Palin on its cover in 2008. The following year, it published an old photo of the former Alaska governor with the headline "How do you solve a problem like Sarah Palin?"

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Last month, the cover image showing Princess Diana and Kate Middleton, the new Duchess of Cambridge, appearing to walk side by side generated outrage online, with one tweeter writing of the image: "Vomit rises in the throat."

Newsweek merged with Brown's website the Daily Beast in November. As part of the deal, Brown also remained editor-in-chief at the Daily Beast.

Since taking over, Brown has made many changes to the magazine, including switching typefaces and increasing its use of photography, that were initially met with several less-than-rave reviews, but some critics have since come around.