David Talbot

David Talbot
(L–R): former President Bill Clinton, White House adviser Mark Penn, David Talbot
Born	September 22, 1951(1951-09-22) Los Angeles, CA, United States
Occupation	author, journalist, media entrepreneur
Spouse	Camille Peri (m. 1989–present) «start: (1989)»"Marriage: Camille Peri to David Talbot" Location: (linkback://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Talbot)
Website
The Talbot Players

David Talbot is a progressive journalist, bestselling author and media entrepreneur. He was the founder and editor-in-chief^[1] of one of the first web magazines, Salon.com. He continues to serve on the publication’s board, and as of July 8, 2011 is returning as the firm's CEO^[2].

Talbot is considered to be one of the pioneers of online journalism since founding Salon in 1995, when the web was still in its infancy. During Talbot's first term serving as Salon's CEO and editor-in-chief, the magazine gained a large following and broke several major national stories. It was described by Entertainment Weekly as one of the Net's "few genuine must-reads".^[3]

Since leaving Salon, Talbot has established a reputation as a revisionist historian, with his controversial work on the Kennedy assassination and other areas of "hidden history."

Talbot has worked as a senior editor for Mother Jones magazine and a features editor for the San Francisco Examiner, and has written for Time Magazine, The New Yorker, Rolling Stone and other publications.

Early life and career

Talbot was born and raised in Los Angeles, California. He attended Harvard Boys School, but did not graduate after falling afoul of the school's headmaster and ROTC program during the Vietnam War. After graduating from the University of California at Santa Cruz, he returned to Los Angeles, where he wrote a history of the Hollywood Left, "Creative Differences", and freelanced for Crawdaddy, Rolling Stone, and other magazines. He later was hired by Environmental Action Foundation in Washington, D.C. to write "Power and Light," a book about the politics of energy. After he returned to California, he was hired as an editor at Mother Jones magazine, and later, by San Francisco Examiner publisher Will Hearst to edit the newspaper's Sunday magazine, Image. It was at the Examiner where Talbot developed the idea for Salon, convincing several of his newspaper colleagues to join him and jump ship into the brave new world of web publishing.

Salon

Salon is a pioneering, award-winning web magazine based in San Francisco. Talbot has characterized Salon as aiming to be a "smart tabloid". In 1996, Time magazine picked Salon as the web site of the year.^[3] Originally created to cover books and popular culture, the web site became increasingly politicized during the Clinton impeachment drama in the late 1990s. Salon broke from the mainstream press by defending the Clinton presidency and investigating the right-wing prosecutorial apparatus headed by Kenneth Starr and Rep. Henry Hyde, whose own infidelity Salon exposed^[4].

Before stepping down as Salon's CEO and editor-in-chief in 2005, Talbot succeeded in stabilizing the financially rocky web enterprise.

Brothers: The Hidden History of the Kennedy Years and Devil Dog

Following his retirement from Salon, Talbot has continued to write. Talbot's book, The New York Times bestseller, Brothers: The Hidden History of the Kennedy Years, offers a revisionist view of the Kennedy presidency and assassination, and explores Bobby Kennedy's search for the truth about his brother's murder. Talbot is now working on a feature documentary based on "Brothers." Talbot’s most recent book, “Devil Dog: The Amazing True Story of the Man Who Saved America,” chronicles the dramatic life and exploits of the legendary antiwar U.S. Marine general, Smedley Darlington Butler. The book, which is part of a new illustrated history series called “Pulp History,” is a collaboration with Zap Comix artist, Spain Rodriguez. “Devil Dog,” which was published by Simon & Schuster in fall 2010, won praise from The New Yorker, Slate and the New York Times, which called the Pulp History series "rip-roaring nonfiction tales with enough purple prose, gory illustrations and va-va-va-voom women to lure in even reluctant teenage male readers."

The Talbot Players

In 2008, Talbot launched a media production company with his siblings called The Talbot Players, named after their late father's theater troupe. The company is producing books, films and documentaries. In addition to the Pulp History series for Simon & Schuster, the company is developing a documentary TV series about global music for PBS called "Sound Tracks." Talbot recently finished a new book, "Season of the Witch," about the wild and bloody birth of "San Francisco values." It will be published in spring 2012.

Return to Salon

As of July 8, 2011, Talbot is returning to Salon as interim Chief Executive Officer, replacing Richard Gingras.

Personal life

Talbot is from a prominent media and entertainment family. He's the son of longtime character actor and founding member of the Screen Actors Guild, Lyle Talbot. He is also the brother of documentary producer and former child actor Stephen Talbot, doctor Cynthia Talbot of Portland, Oregon, and journalist Margaret Talbot, a staff writer at The New Yorker. Talbot is married to writer Camille Peri, co-editor of the national bestseller Mothers Who Think, with whom he has two children. His eldest son, Joe Talbot, is an aspiring musician and filmmaker. His youngest son, Nathaniel, is studying film in high school. Talbot lives with his family in San Francisco.

References

1. ^ http://paidcontent.org/article/419-salon-founder-talbot-steps-in-once-again-as-interim-ceo/
2. ^ http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1084332/000143774911004646/salon_8k-070711.htm
3. ^ ^{a b} http://www.ibiblio.org/slanews/conferences/sla2000/fresh.htm
4. ^ http://www.salon.com/news/1998/09/cov_16newsb.html

External Links

• “The Founder of Salon Is Passing the Mouse” New York Times, Feb. 10, 2005

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/10/books/10salo.html

• New York Times review of “Brothers: The Hidden History of the Kennedy Years” May 20, 2007

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/20/books/review/Brinkley-t.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

• Excerpt from “Brothers” Salon, May 2, 2007

http://www.salon.com/books/feature/2007/05/02/brothers/index.html

• Interview with David Talbot, Tavis Smiley Show, May 23, 2007

http://www.pbs.org/kcet/tavissmiley/archive/200705/20070523_talbot.html

• Interview with David Talbot, Fresh Air, NPR, May 24, 2007

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=10374276

• Terry Gross interview with David Talbot, June 14, 2000

http://www.ibiblio.org/slanews/conferences/sla2000/fresh.htm

• The Talbot Players web site

http://www.talbotplayers.com/

• Leah Garchik column items on The Talbot Players in San Francisco Chronicle: Nov. 10, 2009, Sept. 8, 2008

• "Selling History with '50s Pulp, Pow and Punch" New York Times, Nov. 24, 2010

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/25/books/25pulp.html

• Slate review of "Devil Dog":

http://scribe.doublex.com/blog/xxfactor/book-week-devil-dog-david-talbot

Persondata
Name	Talbot,David
Alternative names
Short description	American investigative journalist and editor
Date of birth	September 22, 1951
Place of birth	Los Angeles, CA, United States
Date of death
Place of death