BREAKING — In a sign that the strike really IS over, writer Matt Price announced today that he is lifting his media blackout. It’s been a long 3 months, and this news has got to come as a great relief to fans of both Matt Price and the Matt Price Media Blackout (though I’m not sure what that latter group expected).

[Price to blackout: Booo!]
Here’s a statement from Mr. Price:
Dear Media,
Hey there. What’s going on? I can exchange pleasantries with you now because as you may know, I am ending my media boycott which began on December 3, 2007. My self-imposed media boycott started because of your extremely poor and oft-times one sided coverage of the writers’ strike. You were in a difficult position as you are essentially owned by the very people who we, the strikers, were striking against. But still, your efforts to be impartial were lackluster at best. As I stated in my explanation via Adam Felber’s blog, you were much more likely to report on a story about a singing cat than you were about the strike, a labor walk-out that affected tens of thousands of Los Angelenos and cost billions of dollars to the struggling California economy. Having said that, a singing cat is a fascinating story and should be covered. I acknowledged this as well. I mean, who wouldn’t want a singing cat? That’s a headlining act in Vegas if you ask me. But all I wanted was equal time for the writers who needed your support, and you refused. And thus, the boycott was implemented.
However, the boycott is now over, and I am free for your interviews, feature stories and simple queries about myself and my take on the world. I know that this must come as a relief to you (the media) because pre-strike, you were always hounding me about the goings-on not only in my life, but in Hollywood and in the planet in which I live (Earth). Well, media, now we are friends again, and the queries may start up in earnest. Do we have some work to do on our relationship, media? Of course we do. Baby steps may be needed because frankly, I still have some resentment about how you treated me during the strike. Who wouldn’t? You can’t ignore your girlfriend all night at a party and just come home and expect her to make out with you. And yes, in that scenario, I am the girlfriend and you’re ignoring me. I can make analogies like this because a) I’ve grown a lot during the strike, and b) I’m comfortable with my sexuality. And I’m not saying that we’re dating. No, no, no…I’m married, and I know that you see a lot of people. It isn’t like that, media.
My point is that the boycott is over, and I would like to consider that dark time water under the silent bridge. Let’s move on and get back to what we do best - you interviewing me all of the time about everything. We’ve got a lot of ground to cover.
Yours in perpetuity,
Matt
——-
Well, there you have it - an end to a devastating boycott that was so deeply woven into our lives that many of us didn’t know it was happening at all. My congratulations to Mr. Price and the media for finding a way through this.





37 comments
dee
February 14, 2008 at 10:52 am
1I’m in the middle of “Team of Rivals” and I am stunned how this correspondence is reminiscent of the letters of Lincoln and Seward.
Ann
February 14, 2008 at 11:25 am
2Dee, are you suggesting…plagiarism?
It's Pat!
February 14, 2008 at 11:52 am
3deja vu all over again.
The ghost of Bob Barker
February 14, 2008 at 5:06 pm
4Once again, the Price is right.
Zee Man
February 14, 2008 at 7:11 pm
5Keith’s Special Comentary is up. Tonight Bush is a Liar and a Fascist, but we already knew that, right?
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/02/14/countdown-special-comment-on- fisa-president-bush-is-a-liar-and-a-fascist/
gillian
February 14, 2008 at 7:31 pm
6http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/opinions/cartoonsandvideos/toles_ main.html?name=Toles&date=02112008&type=c
Just doing my job…
Dale
February 14, 2008 at 7:32 pm
7There´s a singing cat? Where?
just plain Jack
February 15, 2008 at 4:33 am
8I must say Matt stayed true to his declaration of a news blackout. I have not heard a peep from him since the blackout was announced. Of course, I hadn’t heard a peep from him before he announced the blackout. Maybe I need to get out more.
David
February 15, 2008 at 6:00 am
9Talk about cutting to the chase, gillian. The Democratic nominee needs Tom Toles on her/his campaign staff as a senior adviser, if Tom will do it.
David
February 15, 2008 at 7:55 am
10Wonder if Tom Toles read this by Chalmers Johnson?
http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/174884/chalmers_johnson_how_to_sink_am erica
Hot Tub Tommy
February 15, 2008 at 6:20 pm
11Hanoi Jane really stepped in it this time on the “Today”. In my day, a lady would have never used the C*** word. Well, sure we used it all the time (upwards of forty times a day) but Hell, boys will be boys. Ladies should sit up straight and behave themselves.
SallyMutant
February 15, 2008 at 7:03 pm
12I don’t know what year Stevie Smith wrote this (1940’s?), and I’ve never seen the movie “Stevie, ” but I’ve loved this wry poem since I discovered it in the mid 70’s:
The Singing Cat
It was a little captive cat
Upon a crowded train.
His mistress takes him from his box
To ease his fretful pain.
She holds him tight upon her knee
The graceful animal.
And all the people look at him
He is so beautiful.
But oh he pricks and oh he prods
And turns upon her knee
Then lifteth up his innocent voice
In plaintive melody.
He lifteth up his innocent voice
He lifteth up, he singeth
And to each human countenance
A smile of grace he bringeth.
He lifteth up his innocent paw
Upon her breast he clingeth
And everybody cries, Behold
The cat, the cat that singeth.
He lifteth up his innocent voice
He lifteth up, he singeth
And all the people warm themselves
In the love his beauty bringeth.
David
February 15, 2008 at 7:35 pm
13Cool, SM. Smiles of grace are sometimes all that keep us going.
SallyMutant
February 16, 2008 at 1:33 am
14Dang! I should be more attuned to whose blog this is. I’ve read that poem forever, and I just now thought “What if his mistress on the train was Fraulein Schrodinger?” Before she let the annoying and/or/ beautiful cat out that is. Because once the singing cat is out of the box we know it’s alive, we just don’t know how much irony the poet intends. And until we open the railway carriage containing the poet. . .
David
February 16, 2008 at 11:43 am
15Wouldn’t this be a good time for some rhubarb (oops)…smiles of grace?
sharon
February 16, 2008 at 4:57 pm
16Yeow! I just watched K.O.’s Special Commentary. I thought my computer screen was going to melt down.
I think by now it’s a given that W will never see this–not while he’s still in office and has his minions around him to shield him from reality. So I wonder, maybe W really believes everything he says publicly. He would not have heard Richard Clarke when Clarke refuted the lies about FISA. He would not have been watching in 2003 when William “The Bloody” Kristol’s false history of US involvement in Iraq was repeatedly corrected by Daniel Ellsberg. He’s not following the primaries and doesn’t know about the low Repub turnout. He may be wondering why none of the R candidates called and asked for his endorsement, but hey, he’s a busy man. He has to go to Africa and stop the genocide–a subject with which he should be quite familiar.
Eddie
February 17, 2008 at 4:09 pm
17OK, the matter is settled - I am not a cynic - compared to George. No, not that one.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0u6lCBnRoHQ
Eddie
February 17, 2008 at 4:24 pm
18And as long as you’re at YouTube, view this one as well.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MeSSwKffj9o&feature=related
Disclaimer: True believers should not participate.
The AnnFan Club
February 17, 2008 at 6:59 pm
19http://www.charlotte.com/290/story/490671.html
I don’t know if that was such a good idea, Bobby.
Come on, guys! Ann has a great sense of humor. She’s a good sport, she’ll laugh along with us.
Maybe she’ll breaka your face.
Yo, Vinnie! s’appenin.
Maybe I breaka your face, ya t’inka dat?
Ooh, he’s got a point there, Bobby.
Bobby, look on the bright side of things. She may not absolutely hate the cartoon.
She may cut you some slack - figured you drank a little too much root beer watching the Daytona 500 this evening and that you’re stupider than normal.
Is that possible?
I don’t find that thought particularly comforting, Johnny. I would like her to respect me a little bit.
Bobby, have you looked in a mirror lately? DUDE!!
Maybe she just had her nails done and she doesn’t want to chip one of them by throttling a pencil-neck geek.
Yeah.
Yeah.
…
Nice knowing you, Bobby.
Hey Bobby. If you die, can I have your graphic calculator?
David
February 17, 2008 at 8:28 pm
20Dammit, my man Junior’s crew chief couldn’t get a word in edgewise to tell him to pit for rubber during that caution that gave the other guys new tires near the end. I do feel better about the golden anniversary trophy going to Ryan Newman than Kyle Bush. Second in line would have been the Jack Daniels #7 of Clint Boyer. C’est la Daytona 500. I recognized a lot of the cars in the ‘59 footage because they ran again in the ‘60 race. Will always have fond memories of the shine-runner-turned-chicken-farmer’s #27 ‘59 Chevrolet Impala. Seems one of the reasons he won in ‘60 was that he was the first driver to figure out drafting.
cooper
February 18, 2008 at 4:58 am
21David, I didn’t watch the race (I’m CURED!!), but I do remember back in the 60’s, Junior Johnson showed up at Daytona with a car immediately nicknamed the “Hunchback of Holly Farms”. That race car’s body was so grotesquely deformed - to achieve better aerodynamics - that NASCAR had to come out with new rules and with body templates for each make of car to guarantee that never happened again. Actually, it did look more like a hunchback than a Ford and wasn’t really all that effective - a mite “squirrelly” in the turns, as I recall.
sharon
February 18, 2008 at 10:50 am
22“My” “senator”, Joe Lieberman, has endorsed John McCain. Lieberman’s portrait has been taken down and put into a closet at Democratic party HQ in Hartford, and he has been stripped of his super-delegate status. Lieberman denies any desire to run as VP again. Story in today’s NYTimes.
Just what the GOP needs–not one, but TWO old white men to run against Obama. Bring it on, GOP, bring it on.
To think that this guy might have become Gore’s VP. It boggles the mind. Manchurian candidate indeed.
Ann
February 18, 2008 at 12:50 pm
23I read the “Singing Cat” poem with trepidation, expecting every line to reveal the cat as a wicked, face-slashing, hose-ruining, incontinent gato del Diablo. And I say that as a cat-lover.
sharon
February 18, 2008 at 2:22 pm
24Ann, I had the same reaction. And I, too, am a cat lover. We know them all too well!
I had a lot of fun listening to GHWB’s endorsement of McCain today on the way home.
“His character was forged in the crucible of war.”
{not like my son}
“His commitment to America is beyond any doubt.”
{not like my son}
“But most importantly, he has the right values and experience to guide our nation forward at this historic moment.”
{not like my son}
“And so I’m very proud to endorse John McCain for the presidency of the United States of America.”
{why couldn’t I have had a son like that?}
Ann
February 18, 2008 at 2:32 pm
25If only GHWB had had the integrity to endorse McCain eight years ago!
sharon
February 18, 2008 at 2:43 pm
26“Mr. Bush and Mr. McCain shared the stage with their wives, Barbara and Cindy, before a row of American flags and Texas state flags. Mr. Bush wore a blue necktie with a pattern of little aircraft carriers running across it…”
It just doesn’t get any better!
David
February 18, 2008 at 4:00 pm
27IF McCain hadn’t secretly already gone over the edge, Ann, which I do not know. He had moments of genuine insight in the 90s, insight of which he has since attempted to purge himself in his quest for the presidency. GHWB apparently has drifted on off into at least partial la la land if he believes anything he said in endorsing Smilin’ John. Joltin’ Joe has been gone for a while now, which I should have seen coming, giving that he was infected with the pro-contra pathogens.
Obama will annihilate McCain in the general election debates. And what people will see looking at the tv screen, which unfortunately counts way, way, way too much, will serve to underscore the disparity that they are hearing with their own ears, unmediated by the gatekeepers. Gotta to with Obama over Clinton in the media spectacle this campaign will be turned into.
Yeah, cooper, luckily the ‘59 Chevrolet he drove in the ‘60 race was essentially an Impala off the showroom floor with the 348 anyone could buy. And it could be that the fact that it was actually a bit slower is the reason it was still running after all the faster cars had come unglued. Couldn’t help but wonder if the Hunchback of Holly Farms represented Junior Johnson’s secret desire to win driving a long-stroke Ford chicken coop.
dee
February 18, 2008 at 4:10 pm
28cooper, David — geez, I’m swoonin’ here!
Ann
February 18, 2008 at 4:42 pm
29Well, David, I do think that eight years ago, McCain was the better man in the Repub field. So we’d have either McCain as prez, or Gore. Either one would’ve been a better option!
I’m beginning to think that the rest of this thread is about cars and/or races, but I’m not sure. You know I’m sports-proof.
What I do know is that Adam’s definition of “breaking” differs significantly from mine! Matt Price is so “old news” now!
Jim (OJNTNJ)
February 18, 2008 at 5:44 pm
30“Seems one of the reasons he won in ‘60 was that he was the first driver to figure out drafting”
So he managed to avoid the draft by driving really, really, fast? Since this was 1960 and before U.S. military involvement in Vietnam, just how prescient was Junior
SamplesJohnson?*Are all NASCAR drivers psychic or just Mr. Johnson?
*Sorry, I couldn’t resist. Full disclosure: I hail from a small rural Eastern Oregon town that loves racing, be it cars, motorcycles, homemade river rafts, or baby pigs.
just plain Jack
February 18, 2008 at 6:39 pm
31Oh sure, dee, it’s OK for the girls to gas on about their precious lil’ puffy kitty cats, but guys aren’t allowed to bond over auto racing? I would think that women who came to age during the 70’s would be more sensitive to the need for equal rights! Jeez!
cooper
February 18, 2008 at 7:16 pm
32Whoa, Jack, be cool. dee’s just jerking our chain a little bit. That’s okay. She’s a friend - she can do that. Actually, dee makes a good point here. Scout’s honor - no more stock car racing talk - at least from me. I’m a recovering NASCAR addict and I’ve been sober for a year and a half. One day at a time.
gillian
February 18, 2008 at 7:26 pm
33cooper’s right, everybody chill and check out what Tom Tomorrow’s been up to this week. It looks like good journalism to me.
http://www.salon.com/comics/tomo/2008/02/18/tomo/
Peace.
dee
February 18, 2008 at 7:32 pm
34Oh for pity’s sake — I was swoonin’ over all the race talk! I’ve been to the Rock (of late lamented memory) for quite a few races myself and find nothing more exciting than watching ‘em come out of a corner three wide. One of my friends is a cousin who is a cousin of Flossie Johnson (and in the South that’s close kin) and would tell stories of the days when Flossie was still married to Junior and would be rolling biscuits with this huge rock of a diamond on her hand.
And the fact that I had to explain myself to y’all may explain why I’m still single.
hedera
February 18, 2008 at 7:44 pm
35The race I wish I could have seen (we were a week too early and couldn’t stay) was the Annual Duck Race in Lamberhurst, Kent (in the good ol’ UK), last summer. There’s a small river running through the town and once a year they dump a flock of - yup - rubber duckies into the river and bet on which one will float through first.
And on the political side, I would like to share with y’all a bumper sticker I saw this very afternoon, right on the edge of Berkeley:
Bipartisanship: I’ll hug your elephant if you’ll kiss my a**.
(Edited to keep Fanny at bay but you know…)
gillian
February 19, 2008 at 5:02 am
36…One of my friends is a cousin who is a cousin of Flossie Johnson (and in the South that’s close kin).
Full disclosure - one of my close relatives did marry a cousin, but didn’t realize they were related for years until they attended one of her family reunions and he realized he knew a lot of the people there from his family reunions. But don’t worry, the kids all turned out fine and, after a brief “Eeeeeuuu!!!” period, they both got over it.
dee, is it warm and are the maples budding down there yet? Don’t worry about me - there’s less than 3 months of winter left in VT. I’ll be fine. (Damn.)
David
February 19, 2008 at 7:44 pm
37dee,
I knew immediately what you meant.
cooper, never apologize for talking about Junior Johnson. Anyone who could explain his winning strategy for the Daytona 500 by saying, “I just floored it and turned left for 500 miles” deserves periodic mention. And the Hunchback of Holly Farms story… priceless.
For those of you who missed it, here’s the RNC’s take on the writers’ strike. Will this make Fonzie Gromit Felber a red diaper baby, Adam?
******
Berg centered his talk around the “unintended consequences” of the recent Writers Guild of America strike against networks and studios, which ended last week. Berg placed blame on the WGA’s “radical” negotiators, with writers earning six-figure salaries casting themselves as “poor, exploited, downtrodden” workers, “acting like it’s 1957″ and they were UAW members trying to get back on the assembly line building Corvettes.
“When the writers went on strike Nov. 5, they entrusted their futures to a leadership that essentially believes Karl Marx is still relevant,” he said. “This was a revolution against The Man.”
Berg discussed the return of “The Tonight Show” without its writers in early January, when the only guests consenting to cross the WGA picket lines were NBC News anchors, goofy animal acts and Republican presidential candidates, including McCain, Mike Huckabee, Mitt Romney and Ron Paul.
“The WGA cut a side deal with David Letterman but not with our show,” he recalled. “We had to go back to work as the No. 4 network with no writers and no stars. Actors would not cross the line. I didn’t read this anywhere, but they were threatened with blackballing if they crossed the line to do our shows” - ironic, he says, since he believes Hollywood is “obsessed” with the 1950s blacklisting era of Joseph McCarthy. “The true threat of McCarthyism,” he says, “is coming from the left.”
Here’s the link to Jeffrey Ressner’s article:
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0208/8564_Page2.html