I regret to inform you that as of right now, Balloon Juice is no longer a weblog. This is now a web magazine:
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.
I appreciate your continued support of this former blog and current web magazine. Feel free to place your comments “Letters to the Editor” in the comments section magazine sponsored message board.
*** Update ***
As proof of my new-found respectability, this web magazine was just featured on MSNBC’s Inside the Blogs. Blogs- so turn of the century. This is media, baby. Thanks, Jeralynn!
Woops! Make that MSNBC’s Connected Coast to Coast- you see- I can’t get basic facts right- I AM just like the media, only faster!
Rick
John,
You’ll be a legitmate member of the media when you can get Man-in-the-Street Greg Packer to leave a comment.
Cordially…
Greg Packer
Someone called?
Rick
John,
There! Your worries are over.
Cordially…
KC
If you want to get laid, it’s the Balloon Juice, babe. Balloon Juice, the hottest online magazine on the web.
Marcus Wellby
I think there is way too much anger and scrutiny aimed at blogs from “The Powers that Be”. I think it all stems from the following:
1. Business analysts and investment bankers who said the “Internet Revolution” would take the form of companies selling 50lb bags of dog food with free shipping. Well the internet revolution is here, and its not the big boys running the show, its the individual bloggers and small businesses that are reaping the rewards — all without blowing millions in seed money and “launch parties”.
2. The Biased MSM – whether you think they are biased right or left doesn’t matter, I think we can all agree that they are biased toward fucking stupid and arrogant. Who the hell needs a smarmy prick like Wolf Blitzer reporting breathlessly on the latest shark-attack-missing-white-woman when you can find a blog with the information you care about?
PS: I think the FEC would have better ways to spend its time
Jim Allen
This is so cool! I’ve never been published in a magazine before!
KC
I’ll second that, Jim. But don’t forget, thank the publisher/reporter/copy editor/sports, politics, home-living writer/sales representative/president/vice president/CEO/CFO of this fine rag, John Cole, for the opportunity.
SayUncle
Excellent!
ppgaz
Dear Sir:
Okay!
Sincerely,
PG
Halffasthero
To the Editor:
I swear I had paid for my subscription to your magazine but for some reason I am not receiving it. I was instructed to just send cash the first time because your administrator said that the check processor was not working. I asked if a receipt would be coming and was told “Don’t worry, we know who you are.”
Are you still having trouble with your check processor? And how did they know who I was?
Yours, etc.
H.F. Hero
Heineken, MN
sidereal
Attention: Subscription Department
Why do you keep sending me renewal notices even though I have 18 years left on my subscription?
Thanks,
sidereal
Mike
Remember,
It’s better to be respectable than a receptacle.
jcricket
Dear Editor,
I am severly dissapointed in the latest edition of your online magazine. I looked forward to seeing the engagement pictures of Tom Cruise and his lovely new fiancee, but they were nowhere to be found. Nor did I see any articles on that white girl missing in Aruba or the sharks that probably ate her (and some other white people). At least you had a couple of paragraphs on the Runaway Bride.
I will be cancelling my subscription after the next issue if you do not return to the appropriate mix of celebrity gossip and missing white woman coverage.
WWWA?
– j
Fledermaus
Heh. I think the FEC is about to learn a very hard lesson in the snark power of the internet.
Compuglobalhypermeganet
I would like to express my moral outrage over the recent Swimsuit Issue of your Web Magazine. I get your magazine for the political content and not for prurient pics of scantily-clad US Senators and Cabinet members (no matter how impressive that 6-pack on Condi Rice might be!) that are only pubished to boost your circulation at the Virtual Newstand. My 8-year-old should not be subjected to such filth when he comes home, gets into my office, logs on to my PC, goes to my bookmarks, and pulls up Balloon Juice Web Magazine. I trust this will be your last foray into political porn, or you can cancel my subscription.
Sincerely,
A.M. Cox (Mrs.)
Nathan Lanier
I think you’re all failing to grasp the stark reality that we are now all on par with Martha Stewart.
hadenoughofthisyet
What? No shark attacks? No interview with Jacko’s manicurist? Where is the story on Tom Cruise? At least you can try and get that nutcase, er, I mean, that astute legal analyst, Nancy Grace to pen a piece. I am awaiting her wisdom as to why the father of the suspect in the missing-white-attractive-women in Aruba is a suspect himself.
p.lukasiak
Well, if you are going to become mainstream media, at least your ignoring the significance of the DSMs gives you a head start. ;)
Beck
Bah. They can censor my blog–and forget this webzine noise–when they pry it from my cold, dead hands! [Insert Dean scream here]