The folks over at the Morning News' City Hall blog alerted the world yesterday to County Commissioner John Wiley Price's Youtube channel, namely a video in which he calls out the "mainstream media" for running a "character assassination on our Black elected officials." He's not talking about the reporting many news outlets, including us, have done on the still somewhat murky FBI investigation against him. Rather, he's referring to the issue of gavel-grabbing.
At a July 3 County Commissioners meeting, during a very slightly heated discussion about spending, Price grabbed the gavel from County Judge Clay Jenkins' hand. Jenkins snatched it back, later telling KERA that the move "surprised" him.
"That's something that he and I will visit about," he said. "But the important thing is that we got back onto the issues, and that it did not devolve into personal attacks. We've got to remain focused on the issues and not the personalities here."
Price's video, titled "The incident that did not happen," says the whole thing was just a bit of light-hearted play between "two friendly county officials."
In either case, it's a powerful piece of film-making, especially the odd synth-and-drum soundtrack. As an encore, check out his video profile, which features soaring violins and an unforgettable image of Commissioner Price whizzing down the highway in his office chair. Consider us subscribed.