John Wiley Price Cancels Rotary Presentation On-Site

What do Dallas County Commissioner John Wiley Price and Park Cities People columnist Merritt Patterson have in common? They’ve both had the Brett Shipp Ambush (sorry, Merritt).

Price made it to Maggiano’s for today’s Park Cities Rotary meeting, according to new club president Jim Mills. Then he canceled.

“There was a representative of the media downstairs,” said Mills, who happened to be leading a Rotary meeting for the first time, “and whatever transpired between those two entities is the reason we don’t have a speaker.” Publicity chair Kirby Warnock checked into it for me, and confirmed said reporter was Channel 8’s Brett Shipp. Who wasn’t, you know, invited.

Rotarian Nolan Duck worked the event into the club’s regular invocation later, praying that “whatever it was [to drive Price away] not sour his view of this club or this group of people.”

By Georgia Fisher Jul. 22, 2011 | 2:01 pm | 13 Comments | Comments RSS
13 comments to "John Wiley Price Cancels Rotary Presentation On-Site "
  1. Oh, Shipp! JWP Bails on Park Cities Rotary | FrontBurner @ July 22, 2011 at 3:27 pm
    [...] but Channel 8’s Brett Shipp derailed that. Park Cities People’s Georgia Fisher has the details. tweetmeme_url = [...]

  2. Brett Shipp @ July 22, 2011 at 3:45 pm
    PCP, get your facts straight before you rush to publish. Neither of the individuals you quote were witnesses. Ch 11 and the Star Telegram were, though, and no one had a camera. We all were merely asking if we could be invited to listen in. Price felt tricked by the very Rotarians who tipped us ALL off Price would be there. But don’t let the fact deter….

  3. Georgia Fisher @ July 22, 2011 at 4:38 pm
    @Brett Shipp: There are two (if not many) sides to every story, so I’m glad you’re commenting. I did leave you a voicemail before writing this post — and didn’t sense I was being misled today.

    Did Price actually tell the group how he felt?

  4. maria @ July 22, 2011 at 6:25 pm
    I love Brett Shipp! Merritt and JWP-not the kind of people I choose to surround myself with. Just sayin…

  5. Neal @ July 22, 2011 at 8:45 pm
    “Rotarian Nolan Duck worked the event into the club’s regular invocation later, praying that ‘whatever it was [to drive Price away] not sour his view of this club or this group of people.’”

    I hope Nolan Duck was trying to be funny. The good opinion of John Wiley Price is the last thing any decent person should care about having.

    And if Brett Shipp’s version of events is correct and the Rotarians tipped off the media to JWP’s appearance, then Duck’s little prayer was downright hypocritical. (That being said, journalists – like the politicians they cover – often are notorious liars).

  6. Betty Culbreath @ July 23, 2011 at 3:51 am
    Why would a tax paid Elected Official, feel the need to cancel, a public speaking engagement because Media is present.John Price has always welcome Media,his career was built on Media exposure on staged demonstrations.John can not hide now, that the spotlight has turn Red onto him as he has often pointed it at Others.

  7. peelins @ July 23, 2011 at 9:39 am
    Richard Fisher made it to the Rotary Club of Dallas (downtown) amid a swarm of press. No problems.

    Perhaps everyone needs to take a deep breath and repeat this from Rotary International: The Four-Way Test…

    Of the things we think, say or do
    1.Is it the TRUTH?
    2.Is it FAIR to all concerned?
    3.Will it build GOODWILL and BETTER FRIENDSHIPS?
    4.Will it be BENEFICIAL to all concerned?

  8. JimS @ July 23, 2011 at 11:41 am
    Why are Parkies always such nins?

  9. grump @ July 23, 2011 at 9:20 pm
    John What’smy Price is a poser.

  10. Avid Reader @ July 25, 2011 at 9:08 am
    Did the big bad Rotarians (sp?) tip off the “media” or did some journalists just read our blog….or maybe they just did some actual journalism and found out where an eccentric public figure would be speaking?

  11. kmom @ July 25, 2011 at 12:47 pm
    “tipped off the media” – that’s ridiculous. I knew JWP was speaking to the rotarians last week from this blog, it wasn’t some secret deal. Get off your high horse Mr. Shipp, you are trying to stir an imaginary pot – as usual. Now you’ll report how you were treated unfairly by this paper, this blog, The citizens of the Park Cities, the Rotarians, etc. and it will all be a big bloated, sensationalized load of BS. I loathe “journalists” like this guy.

  12. Sanglier @ July 25, 2011 at 8:03 pm
    kmom – get off YOUR “high horse.” It is the responsibility of journalists to track down politicians who are shady, like JWP, and ask questions to bring their dealings to light. And what JWP is involved with is not “imaginary”, just ask the FBI.

  13. Sparky @ August 5, 2011 at 6:55 am
    May I ask the purpose of JWP being at a Park Cities Rotary meeting to speak?

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