The Talent Show is dead. Long live The Talent Show.

Atrios asks some good questions about the FEC’s proposed regulations on bloggers :

Why is somebody who prints up and mails out weekly vanity newsletter entitled to the media exemption but not me?

Why is Michael Savage entitled to the media exemption but not me?

Why is Salon.com entitled to the media exemption but not me?

In order to avoid any potential pitfalls, let me use this opportunity to announce that this post will be the last one on The Talent Show blog. Starting either late today or tomorrow, I will relaunch (without any fanfare whatsoever) my new web magazine, The Talent Show. I will still be the primary writer around here, but the traditional blog posts will be replaced with articles of varying lengths and topics. I will also be replacing the comments with article specific message boards. The look of the site, the writing style, the subject matter, the content, and the technological back-end will be identical to what I’m using now, but the change (as least as far as the FEC is concerned) will be drastic. Starting tomorrow, my days as a blogger are ending and my days as a writer begin.


posted by greg on June 29, 2005 @ 6:50 pm

64 comments

  1. Your the man now, dawg! (gack…must…rinse…home-key fingers…ack).

    Comment by teh l4m3 — June 29, 2005 @ 7:25 pm

  2. To make it even more “official,” you should assemble a weekly digest of your best articles, print them as a PDF file, and send them out via email to people who sign up for a nominal charge – like a penny. Voila – subscribers paying to receive “printed” material! Not even Salon does that!

    Comment by dave — June 29, 2005 @ 7:33 pm

  3. Dude. If I were you, I’d hold out for the expense account.

    Comment by Grant — June 29, 2005 @ 7:43 pm

  4. Instead of article specific message boards, maybe you could letters to the editor.

    Comment by Adolph Hitler — June 29, 2005 @ 7:45 pm

  5. I think the government should kick down your door, pull you from your bed by the ankles in the middle of the night, drag you into the street, kick you into submission, pour gasoline over your bloodied and bruised body, and ignite you right in front of your neighbors.

    That’s what I think.

    I don’t really know what you were writing about, but you mentioned Atrios in your first two words, so I figure you should be exploded.

    Comment by ricky — June 29, 2005 @ 7:48 pm

  6. I was just kidding, by the way.

    It’s my sense of humor.

    Comment by ricky — June 29, 2005 @ 7:49 pm

  7. Dus ‘is mean we hafta start callin’ you “Chief”, Chief?

    Comment by D.R. Marvel — June 29, 2005 @ 7:51 pm

  8. Congratulations!

    We will miss your blog. I hope the online magazine will help fill the hole in our lives.

    Comment by Ottnott — June 29, 2005 @ 7:51 pm

  9. They keep retreiving the bovine excrement from these “hearings” and it always comes out smelling the same. I look forward to your new format and wish you the best!

    Lyle

    Comment by LyleNews — June 29, 2005 @ 7:53 pm

  10. Dammit!

    Now I have to find a species of octopus that starts with ‘blog’, or I’m shit out of luck. Blogtopus Magazine? Blogtopus Tri-Deca Monthly?

    Dammit!

    Comment by blogtopus — June 29, 2005 @ 7:53 pm

  11. What’s ‘is “Writer” Crapola???

    You ain’t no Lowly Ink-Stained Wretch (Retch?)…

    You da Publishing Editor of this Cyber-Rag…

    Whin’s the Groundbreaking fer yore own Xanadu?

    Comment by D.R. Marvel — June 29, 2005 @ 7:58 pm

  12. Yes. Web magazines. Join us.

    Comment by Kyle — June 29, 2005 @ 8:15 pm

  13. Look………I hope you’re gonna be willing to do hard time rather than give my name to the feds….(man, I get all choked up whenever I think about that spunky little “Queen of all Iraq” taking that long walk to the big house, because she’s got so much integrity)…….(sob).

    Comment by BigIslandBoy — June 29, 2005 @ 8:17 pm

  14. Onlinemagazineads

    A little clunky.

    Comment by lapin — June 29, 2005 @ 8:19 pm

  15. Get a couple of former bloggers together to form a for-profit company that designs and prints and mails these pdfs out and manages the subscriptions. Buy ads.
     
    Then get some more former bloggers together and spin off a non-profit Society for Low Budget Journalism. Create a code of ethics. Have a few conventions that discuss media techniques for low budget journalism. Have them at J schools and B schools. Podcast. Sponsor referred low budget journalism awards. Sponsor press passes.
     
    Next stop…. Cover of Vanity Fair!

    Comment by jerry — June 29, 2005 @ 8:21 pm

  16. If you’re serious about becoming a real producer of real journalism, you should throw your weekly best-of PDF printouts on the front steps of several thousand area homes. Unless you pad your circulation numbers, you risk irrelevance.

    Comment by Rowdy — June 29, 2005 @ 8:24 pm

  17. “Broken ice still melts in the sun, and times that are broken can often be one again.” – Hall & Oates “Out of Touch”

    Today’s political lesson concerns the old adage that in politics, a few months can be a lifetime. When California treasurer Phil Angelides announced this winter that he would challenge Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2006, I thought, like many other Democrat…

    Trackback by Terry McMahon's Awesome Blog — June 29, 2005 @ 8:28 pm

  18. Hey, can I be the ombudsman?

    Comment by skeeve — June 29, 2005 @ 8:51 pm

  19. Well, thank goodness it will be a respectable magazine from now on instead of one of those filthy blogs

    Now it will be fair and balanced, won’t it?

    Comment by OutFar — June 29, 2005 @ 8:51 pm

  20. Cool. Think of all the tax write-offs you’ll now be privy to as a serious professional “writer”. You can thank Georgie Boy for that :)

    Comment by John — June 29, 2005 @ 8:52 pm

  21. And we could call the commenters stringers.

    Commentor?

    Hey! Commentators!

    That’s the ticket.

    Comment by mario — June 29, 2005 @ 9:05 pm

  22. Do you need a masthead? I can make a masthead with Corel PhotoPaint. Well, it’s actually a digital representation of a masthead…

    Of course, even in hardcopy the “masthead” is really just a symbolic, two-dimensional representation of something else. In fact, the head of a ship’s mast doesn’t look much at all like a list of people…unless that’s where they list the people who built the ship?

    I wonder…

    Comment by jimbo92107 — June 29, 2005 @ 10:00 pm

  23. Wait, I don’t wanna be a commentator. I will be…a guest columnist!

    (I hear guest columnists get a t-shirt.)

    Comment by Margot — June 29, 2005 @ 10:06 pm

  24. Fine, I’ll switch my blog to “I know where the WMD Are” Magazine.

    -

    Comment by Ahmad Chalabi — June 29, 2005 @ 10:20 pm

  25. “but then the evil-doers quick get-away was thwarted by a clever re-writing of the 3rd law of thermodynamics…”

    Comment by disasterman — June 29, 2005 @ 10:32 pm

  26. Well talent is a biased term. Just like the truth is. (/neocon)

    Comment by Mr.Murder — June 29, 2005 @ 10:50 pm

  27. I don’t know. I’ll have to wait and see how I like the new Talent Show Online Magazine. I really liked the blog, but I might get confused with the new format.

    I mean, how on earth will everyone know how to work the message boards? Will there be training?

    Comment by Emily — June 29, 2005 @ 10:56 pm

  28. In the grand internets tradition, let’s start talking about OLM’s and not deign to explain what they are–

    Comment by pbg — June 30, 2005 @ 12:33 am

  29. The Confucian concept of ‘rectification of names’ demands that things be given their proper names in order for language, speech, and thought to reflect reality and for truth to become possible in human endeavor.

    The FEC is simply rectifying names with respect to the regulation of political speech so that bloggers be forbidden to raise money for candidates, etc., while all those known by their ‘proper’ name be permitted to shovel cash by the truckload to the candidate of their choice, so long as that candidate believes in One Nation, Under God and Christ, Amen.

    Comment by Jon R. Koppenhoefer — June 30, 2005 @ 1:50 am

  30. “The ONLY truth is that there IS no truth.”
    Mexican proverb

    Comment by Big Daddy — June 30, 2005 @ 3:40 am

  31. Fabulous. Do you get to yell “Stop the Presses!”?

    Comment by deckko — June 30, 2005 @ 5:38 am

  32. Regulate This!

    Unfortunately, the “bar thing” has kept me from spending too much time focused on the FEC Public Hearing on Internet Communications, but it’s great to know that Markos of Daily Kos and Duncan a/k/a Atrios were there. Markos’ remarks can…

    Trackback by Law Dork — June 30, 2005 @ 6:02 am

  33. No, it’s more like: “Hey Chief, Stop the Bandwidth!”…

    Comment by D.R. Marvel — June 30, 2005 @ 6:41 am

  34. Sadly, No!: A Serio-Comedic Journal of Opinion Published in Electronic Form

    …We’d better get on board here. Because even Atrios has retooled. Actually, SadNo HQ is in Germany, so we can do whatever we want as long as it doesn’t involve goose-stepping around with a finger on one’s upper lip like…

    Trackback by Sadly, No! — June 30, 2005 @ 7:09 am

  35. Blogging Dies to Save Blogging

    I kind of feel like I won the lottery today, for socially I am living a rags to riches fairytale. Yesterday, I was friends with a bunch of “bloggers” but today I’m friends with honest to goodness “members of the press” — living the high life like a me…

    Trackback by Swing State Project — June 30, 2005 @ 7:47 am

  36. Blogging Dies to Save Blogging

    I kind of feel like I won the lottery today, for socially I am living a rags to riches fairytale. Yesterday, I was friends with a bunch of “bloggers” but today I’m friends with honest to goodness “members of the press” — living the high life like a me…

    Trackback by Swing State Project — June 30, 2005 @ 7:47 am

  37. “Of course, even in hardcopy the “masthead” is really just a symbolic, two-dimensional representation of something else. In fact, the head of a ship’s mast doesn’t look much at all like a list of people…unless that’s where they list the people who built the ship?”

    Isn’t that where the names are posted for punishment (Captain’s Mast, I think it was called)? Sounds right to me.

    Ed

    Comment by Ed Drone — June 30, 2005 @ 8:12 am

  38. Wonderful! Congratulations. “Journalist” being a fake career today (few journalists actually follow any code of ethics and have no standard practices, Jon Stewart is more respected for honesty and acuuracy than any “anchor” out there, a whore gets a White House press pass and “journalists” by and large don’t even react, newspapers are largely collections of reworked press releases, people on tv and radio who just make stuff daily are referred to as “journalists”, etc.) I’m sure that “writer” will prove to be an excellent alternative to “blogger.” Now you can organanize and attend conferences on the ethics and future of Writerism! Does “Writing” have a future, and should it be regulated?

    Comment by W Action — June 30, 2005 @ 8:36 am

  39. CopyCat

    Comment by Jeff Gannon — June 30, 2005 @ 9:10 am

  40. I’m a Fucking Blogger

    I know a lot of this stuff is tounge and cheek but the fact that we have to joke about it all is sad. Atrios and The Talent Show are commenting on the possibility that bloggers won’t be privy to…

    Trackback by James Poling — June 30, 2005 @ 10:50 am

  41. The Day the Bloggers Died

    As of yesterday, blogs are dead. Say hello to the Online Magazine Community. Others joining so far: Americablog Crooks & Liars Sadly, No! Swing State Project Law Dork Dispassionate Liberalism Chaos Digest The Political Forecast…

    Trackback by TalkLeft: The Politics of Crime — June 30, 2005 @ 10:52 am

  42. The Day the Bloggers Died

    As of yesterday, blogs are dead. Say hello to the Online Magazine Community. Others joining so far: Americablog Crooks & Liars Sadly, No! Swing State Project Law Dork Dispassionate Liberalism Chaos Digest The Political Forecast TalkLeft is joining …

    Trackback by TalkLeft: The Politics of Crime — June 30, 2005 @ 11:03 am

  43. virgo hec penna; meretrix est stampificata

    Some blogs are spontaneously becoming ‘online magazines.’ Heh. But something tells me that the word ‘blog’ isn’t going to be a nasty pejorative for too long. Think of what a ridiculous word ‘website’ is. The cant of technology is always…

    Trackback by Joe's Dartblog — June 30, 2005 @ 11:38 am

  44. The Death of Blogging

    Greg is a genius: Atrios asks some good questions about the FEC’s proposed regulations on bloggers : Why is somebody who prints up and mails out weekly vanity newsletter entitled to the media exemption but not me? Why is Michael…

    Trackback by This Space For Rent — June 30, 2005 @ 12:22 pm

  45. Launching the Daily Pundit Magazine

    The Talent Show: The Talent Show is dead. Long live The Talent Show. From now on, Daily Pundit is only running articles followed by letters to the editors and contributors. We are a magazine now, conceptually identical to other legitimate…

    Trackback by The San Francisco Real Estate Blog — June 30, 2005 @ 1:22 pm

  46. Note to FEC

    Blogging is so yesterday.

    Thus I’ve decided – after much heartache – to follow the lates…

    Trackback by Unconventional Wisdom — June 30, 2005 @ 1:27 pm

  47. Launching the Daily Pundit Magazine

    The Talent Show: The Talent Show is dead. Long live The Talent Show. From now on, Daily Pundit is only…

    Trackback by Daily Pundit — June 30, 2005 @ 1:55 pm

  48. onlinemagazineosphere?

    Comment by edud — June 30, 2005 @ 2:55 pm

  49. “Stop the presses!”

    is now:

    “Crimp the cable!”

    [must credit ElectricMegaphone OLM...]

    Comment by Parker — June 30, 2005 @ 3:05 pm

  50. just in time for independence day

    beginning today, june 30, 2005, i would like to announce that annatopia the blog is no more. after reading atrios’s…

    Trackback by annatopia — June 30, 2005 @ 3:38 pm

  51. This Is A Blog. This Will Remain A Blog.

    Following the depressing nature of the questions at the latest FEC hearing on regulating the Internet, it appears that some bloggers are ready to jump ship, so to speak. Jeralynn Merritt has declared yesterday as the Day the Blogs Died,…

    Trackback by Captain's Quarters — June 30, 2005 @ 3:56 pm

  52. Well done. You’ve effectively described the sticky problems in trying to divide ‘new’ forms of content delivery from ‘old’ ones. But why stop at comparisons with print media or Salon? If it so chose, The Talent Show could ‘prove’ that it is not only a magazine and newspaper, but also a radio station and TV show. (Whatever confers the best advantage.)

    Comment by Mr. Snitch! — June 30, 2005 @ 3:57 pm

  53. I have already converted as one of the sheep following the pack. I am now a writer with an online web magazine. Soon the OWM or OLM will be shortend to WAG for Web Mag. So soon we will be waggers instead of bloggers. And since that is bound to happen I wish to be the first, the very first, to coin the term wagoverse.

    Comment by IXLNXS — June 30, 2005 @ 4:02 pm

  54. The ‘blogosphere become the ‘zineosphere. It sure sounds better than it looks.

    Comment by benJCarter — June 30, 2005 @ 5:47 pm

  55. Blogs Becoming “Online Magazines”

    Apropos the ongoing controversy over bloggers and campaign finance laws, Duncan “Atrios” Black asks,

    Why is somebody who prints up and mails out weekly vanity newsletter entitled to the media exemption but not me?

    Why is Michael Savag…

    Trackback by Outside The Beltway — June 30, 2005 @ 7:01 pm

  56. The FEC called.

    You had them fooled until they looked at your “article-specific message boards” and didn’t find smileys.

    Man… you were so close!

    Comment by Ike — June 30, 2005 @ 10:13 pm

  57. I’m sorry, but I’m just not going to redesign, or retitle my blog for the FEC. I’d rather be fined or jailed.

    You can jump through hoops if you want. I think refusing to do so and forcing the FEC to show itself for exactly what it is – a vehicle for censorship and government control of individuals – will have a more positive effect on the rest of the blogosphere.

    I’m not going to cooperate with the anti-freedom machine.

    Comment by Trevor — July 1, 2005 @ 6:03 am

  58. As the two Guinness guys say: “Brilliant!”

    Comment by jim — July 1, 2005 @ 6:09 am

  59. Blog Days In D.C.

    The Federal Election Commission held public hearings this week on how to apply campaign-finance rules to the Internet, and bloggers had a prominent place at the witness table. But their role went beyond testifying; they also served as sources for…

    Trackback by Beltway Blogroll — July 1, 2005 @ 9:08 am

  60. Or you could do what I did with dumpsantorum.com – just install WordPress on Canadian servers. FEC has no jurisdicition up there. I’m seeking “digital asylum” in the great white north.

    Comment by Mike Panetta — July 1, 2005 @ 9:18 am

  61. hmm

    what’s going on? where are the posts? the knitting, the pictures, the rants about how the judicial future of this country is doomed? these…

    Trackback by bykathryn.com — July 3, 2005 @ 4:02 pm

  62. Good. I’ve always thought blog was kind of a gross word.
    … Oh wow – Dynamic preview! Nice!

    Comment by Busy — July 4, 2005 @ 3:02 pm

  63. Working in a Coal Mine: Lord I Am So Tired, but Good-Looking – New York Times

    The NYTs (or Josh Ozersky at least) reads my ‘online magazine’….Working in a Coal Mine: Lord I Am So Tired, but Good-Looking – New York Times:Working in a Coal Mine: Lord I Am So Tired, but Good-LookingMOST people tend to think of coal mining as a da…

    Trackback by B12 Partners Solipsism — July 5, 2005 @ 5:13 am

  64. Welcome to my hypertext non-fiction novel

    Avoiding the news while on vacation, I’ve decided to make the announcement now. A few weeks ago, after a hearing on a Federal Election Commission proposal that would extend some campaign finance rules to the Internet, including bloggers, and in…

    Trackback by aTypical Joe: A gay New Yorker living in the rural south. — July 20, 2005 @ 3:30 pm

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