…at least for blogs that want to report on elections and accept political ads. Before yesterday, they were blogs and hence not eligible for the Federal Election Commission’s “media exempton.” But now they are “Online Magazines” and the world will never be the same, as evidenced by The Talent Show blog-now-magazine:

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.

And, from Atrios: “The Blog is Dead. Long Live the Online Magazine.”

(NB I heard about this on CNN’s “Inside Politics” where “Inside The Blogs” signed off as “Inside The Online Magazines”)

Time Inc. caved, and nobody respects that: Not NYT publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr. , who said that he was “deeply disappointed” by the move, pointing out that when NYT had been in the same position it hadn’t revealed a damn thing.

From the Time Inc. statement: “Although we shall comply with the order to turn over the subpoenaed records, we shall continue to support the protection of confidential sources.”

Atrios says, credibility issue much?

When it comes to defending the supposed principles they were fighting for, this seems like a rather bad outcome. The whole point was that to protect the freedom of the press you had to protect the identity of confidential sources. From this perspective Time taints their entire publication — you can’t rely on anyone working for that magazine to protect their sources because the publishers/editors will sell out all of their journalist’s sources.

America Is A Liberal Concept wonders “how Time might have betrayed the trust of historically important whistleblowers, such as Daniel Ellsberg, Mark ‘Deep Throat’ Felt or even Jeffrey Wigand, the tobacco executive who bravely revealed the industry’s duplicity, as dramatized in ‘The Insider.’”

And, on the Huffington Post, Tom Watson boils blogosphere outrage to the simple “Pearlstine = Wuss”

It should be noted that Time is, in fact, complying with the law; and whoever the source is who is being protected did, in fact, commit a crime. But, would you want to be an anonymous source for Time, Inc. right now?

Happy Canada Day, Village Voice staffers! The deadline looms for Village Voice staff and management to reach an agreement on a new contract. Management’s proposed version involves compromised benefits and a chump-change wage increase of $15/week. The staff is ready to strike “for the first time in the newspaper’s 50-year history,” starting at what everyone keeps on describing as midnight tonight but I prefer to call “the stroke of Canada Day.” [NYT]

Susan Ungaro not welcome in Meredith’s Family Circle: Meredith Corporation, who last month bought Parents, Child, Fitness, and Family Circle magazines from G+J for $350 million, will be leaving behind 150 staffers in the acquisition – including Family Circle editor Susan Ungaro. Ungaro has been editor of Family Circle for 11 years and at the magazine 25 years. She is also a past ASME editor. But, according to Meredith president Jack Griffin, Family Circle needs a “fresh set of eyes.” Those eyes belong to Linda Fears, former YM and Parents editor and current acting editor in chief of business development at G+J. Pretty classless move, but at least they didn’t do it the day before your 80th birthday. [MediaWeek]

A reader just proposed to me! In response to this morning’s item on Fox News ogling wet bridezillas, an anonymous tipster writes: “I think you are safe from ever having to worry about getting married. You have a face made for the Internet.” Whatever, mean tipster, you’ve obviously never seen me. I have a face made for radio.

The L Magazine blog, “The Local” notes an evocative lede in the NYT’s Thursday Styles:

“WHAT does Alan Cumming smell like? Hmm. A manly, tasty blend of black pepper and bergamot with just a hint of Scotch pine, whiskey and – could it be? – rubber.”

We’re above making the obvious puns and so is The Local, instead electing to imagine other celebrity scents and their taglines. Our favorite was “Jonathan Safran-Foer: Extremely subtle and incredibly sexy.” Our only quibble with The Local’s post was not enough media-inspired fragrances; where is our Eau-de-Remnick or Smells Like Isikoff? Send us your ideas and we’ll publish the lot of them in honor of Canada Day. Which is tomorrow. Mmm, smells Canada-licious!

• Time Inc. announced this morning that they will, in fact, turn over Matt Cooper’s notes to the court pursuant to a court order. This highlights a very interesting and heretofore unexplored angle: the conflict between the idividual journalist and the agenda of its corporate employer. The WSJ looks into it here. If they didn’t hand it over, Cooper would face jail time; Time would face “a very large fine“. So while we debate whether the state has the right to compel violation of [still murkily-defined and not constitutionally protected] journalistic privilege, there is the completely different question of whether a corporation can or should do so itself (well, clearly it can but should it? And what would happen if Cooper turned around and sued Time Inc., or if the source did?). These are interesting questions. I guess Cooper can have a go at them from the outside.
• Judith Miller and the New York Times, meanwhile, “won’t crack.” But, to be fair, the New York Times isn’t implicated and has no outstanding court orders against it. Nothing new on JudithMiller.org, either.
• Judge Thomas F. Hogan has run out of patience, and said bluntly that testify or jail, according to the NYT. He also quoted from Lewis Carroll, saying “the time has come, the Walrus said.” Which means arguments will be limited to jail: where and for how long, and fines: how much. Which means that Floyd Abrams will have to shelve his brief on why the sea is boiling hot and whether pigs have wings. In other news, you remember what happened to those oysters.
• Robert Novak is taking heat from his fellow journos for staying silent (and bloggers, natch). The NYT‘s Jacques Steinberg makes the rounds of Novak’s contemporaries like the now-defunct Capital Gang colleague Al Hunt (“It’s just so confusing to citizens and people in our business. If Bob could provide some context, I think it would be helpful”), San Diego Union-Tribune (which runs his column) reader representative Gina Lubrano (on his zipped lips: “As a journalist, he would find that response unacceptable from others”) and (as mentioned) William Safire (“Mr. Novak should finally write the column he owes readers and colleagues”). Novak says he’ll tell all when he can, and in the meantime he’s got no problems doing his job, but apparently he’s “showing some strain.” I will say this for him, he’s one hell of a stoic 74-year old.
  

Alessandra Stanley is back, this time to eviscerate “talk show washout” Tucker Carlson and his still-new show “The Situation.” But, this time she happens to be mostly right: discussion on “The Situation” is “hurried and abrupt” and Tucker really does tend to dismiss debates with curt one-liners that often amount to cheap potshots. Rachel Maddow seriously has the patience of a saint. Stanley also says that MSNBC is where shows like this go to die, calling it “the River Styx of television talk shows” (where audiences tend to drink from the River Lethe after watching them).* She summary-judges that it’s “is all cross and no fire” and calls for MSNBC to “end the misery.” Ouch, but this is Alessandra Stanley.

This criticism is not new; “The Situation” – and Tucker – have taken their lumps – but come on, people, it’s been two weeks. Let the damn show find its voice. The format is new, and definitely needs to be tinkered with but there’s no reason why it can’t work. Excise the goofy references to the world’s biggest omelette (and the gratuitous pot-shots about which fat celebrity ordered it for breakfast) and focus on making good points about real stories, and teasing out the angles that everyone else has missed (case in point: Matt & Judy. TONS to talk about there, and last night’s segment on that was very good, with Rachel Maddow reminding us that the whole thing began with a specific and retributory leak from high up in the Bush administration and I even appreciated Jay Severin pointing out that Grand Jury inquiries have a purpose, too). It can be done; you and Rick Kaplan just have to figure out how (btw bloggers do it all the time; pith is their bread and butter). So no one’s watching; who cares, that gives you even more freedom to tinker. Make it good, then people will come back. But yeah, Tucker, it’s not only the show that needs to change. You really do need to stop being such a weenie. And that “if my bowtie’s casually untied around my neck it must mean it’s the end of the show” is pretentious and grating. Lose it.

*If this were Slate I’d helpfully include a link so you all could learn from my arcane allusion. But, not only do I assume that you’re all quite smart, I also figure you’re at least smart enough to Google. I just don’t presume that you need to.

Fox News has a segment right now on “How not to be a Bridezilla,” with some helpful tips from a WeddingChannel.com rep like “remember that this is a happy thing” and “use the internet.” While these helpful tips are being dispensed, brides in full regalia are being taught a lesson, dammit, by dunking each other in a dunk tank on 6th Avenue. Except that the dunk tank has a see-through panel on the front so they have inadvertently created a peep-show on Sixth Avenue, and also, are those dresses see through? Doozy wants to know. And by the way these aren’t actual brides, they’re WeddingChannel interns. So really, the lesson they’re being taught is that when working for WeddingChannnel you need to be prepared to flash a little leg for the national audience.

Doozy really seems excited about the fact that the dresses are see through. Then he asks if the interns are free on Friday. Eeeewww, like two seconds ago he just interviewed his teenage daughter. Doozy, step away from the dunk tank.

Anyhow, I’m learning with Fox this morning, so when the time comes I won’t be a bridezilla, as long as the bridesmaids do what they’re fucking told. I said periwinkle, dammit! Bitch, you look fat in that dress.

Salacious semi-see-through photos after the jump.

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From FishbowlDC:

Results of today’s hearing: Matt & Judy have until Friday to prepare their last-round defense. Final hearing July 6th.

Matt Cooper says he would “rather not” turn over source-revealing documents after coming so far, but at this point it was Time Inc.’s decision.

In other news, also from FishbowlDC, Robert Novak finally speaks! So what if it’s in circles and he does so reluctantly, we’ll take what we can get. An edited excerpt from “Inside Politics,” Novak interviewed by guest host Ed Henry:

HENRY: …Why is it that there are two reporters out there who may go to jail, Bob, but it doesn’t appear that you are going to go to jail?

NOVAK: Well, that’s what I can’t reveal until this case is finished. I hope it is finished soon. And when it does, I agree with Mr. Safire, I will reveal all in a column and on the air.

HENRY: Do you understand why in general there’s frustration among fellow journalist after 41 years of distinguished work, where you’ve always pushed and been a fierce advocate of the public’s right to know, you’re not letting the public know about such a critical case, and two people may go to jail.

NOVAK: Well, they are not going to jail because of me. Whether I answer your questions or not, it has nothing to do with that. That’s very ridiculous to think that I am the cause of their going to jail. I don’t think they should be going to jail…

HENRY: No, but some people feel if you would come forward with the information that you have, that maybe they would not go to jail.

NOVAK: But you don’t know — Ed, you don’t know anything about the case. And those people who say that don’t know anything about the case. And unfortunately, as somebody who likes to write, I’d like to say a lot about the case, but because of my attorney’s advice I can’t. But I will. And there might be some surprising things.

Is it just me, or does that last paragraph remind you of anyone? “Ed, Ed, Ed, you’re glib. You don’t know anything about journalistic privilege. I do…”

The Asian American Journalists Association have sent an angry letter to Jann Wenner of Rolling Stone “calling out Norman Mailer as a racist” but more importantly calling him out for dissing on “the accomplishments of all women and journalists of color” by calling Michiko Kakutani a “two-fer”: the “token” “Asiatic, feminist” at the Times. To paraphrase: Yo, Norm, she’s from fucking Connecticut, and you, America’s Greatest Living Novelist, are a bigot. For shame.

Actual text of the letter after the jump.

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It was pretty dry at our favorite watering hole today. Everyone must be off cranking up their barbeque pits. There was one headliner at Michael’s: Mel Brooks, in his darkest blackout shades and a shock of white gray hair.

[For expediency, this post is going up unedited and unfact-checked, so excuse any mistakes. Or, email me and I'll correct them later today].

Table 1: Mel(could he have been celebrating his birthday?) with a bunch of guys, including Tom Meany.

Table 7: Andre Leon Talley, Vogue’s larger-than-life editor-at-large with tall blonde woman.

Table 8 (his usual table by the front door): David Patrick Columbia, New York Social Diaries, with two smartly-dressed women.

A (we need table numbers!): Sally Susman, Estee Lauder, and Cindy Lewis, VP/Publisher, Shop Etc.

B: Joe Armstrong with politica Maureen Ratner (wife of Steve Ratner) and attorney Cynthia Brill (wife of Steve Brill).

C: Variety’s Army Archerd in dark blue plaid shirt with his wife in a striped shirt.

Table 5: Designer Arnold Scaasi in dark blue striped shirt and tan jacket, with two guys.

D: Famed flack Bobby Zarem with woman who looked like an actress.

Table 17: Jack Myers, author of The Jack Myers report and founder of mediavillage.com, was with Joanna Jordan, Central Talent Booking.

F: Someone who looked very much like Ahmet Ertegun (we think) with United Radio Stations’ Nick Verbitsky.

E: Not sure if it was her, but it looked like Director Joan Gellman with a woman in a peach jacket.

G or H (couldn’t see very well): The Daily News’ Lloyd Grove with CBS News Anchor Bob Schiefer. He reads TVNewser!!

Table 15: Attorney Lewis Korman(NYU Law ’69) with his sister, Shelley (sp?).

Nightclub entrepreneur Amy Sacco was there eating with someone.

Table 21: Charlie Schueler, of Cablevision, with Andrew Sorkin, a Times Business Reporter.

Table 23: Jordan Ringel, an attorney at Pavia & Harcourt with some other fellow.

Table 26: Guy with orange tie drinking (!) white wine with woman in yellow jacket.

Table 22: This was our table. I was with our e-i-c Elizabeth Spiers and Aileen Gallagher, our new Associate Editor (you read it here first!).

J: Heather Vincent (former producer for Tina Brown’s Topic A; now at BET’s Nightly News, we believe), with an unknown guy.

K: Seated nearby, NBC Senior Producer Aretha Marshall (she and Heather greeted each other warmly) with a man and a woman.

I: Ralph Destino, VP (formerly? presently?) Van Cleef & Arpels with an HBO exec.

Table 25: Larry Burstein, publisher of New York magazine, with Bob Chavez, President of Hermes.

BACK ROOM:
Self’s Lucy Danziger.

Amy Bonawitz, a reporter at People, with Tracey Spector, in PR at Lifetime, and Maggie Gallant, of Spotlight Communications (which does PR for Lifetime, Animal Planet, PBS and more).

Larry Hackett, deputy managing editor of People was lunching with Albert Kim, assistant managing editor there.

IF you were at Michael’s today (or any day) and would like to report in, or correct the record, please email LaurelT AT mediabistro.com (also, please send us table numbers!)

ROOM MAP