We at Ears To The House are absolutely gobsmacked at the story surrounding Annabel Ross and the Movement Electronic Music Festival in Detroit that’s been running now for nearly two weeks. No matter how objectively we try to look at the facts, a number of the big players in the story come out looking worse every time.

And Mixmag’s role in it, frankly, is nothing short of shameful. Since Ross made the allegation public that Carl Craig had personally intervened to ban her from reviewing the festival for the magazine, there has been the most astonishing silence. They have failed to deny the allegation or make any comment at all. Nor have they published any article or statement condemning the horrendous behaviour of Carl Craig and Alexander Omar Smith.

The questions for Mixmag just keep mounting up. Is the story true? If it’s not, why haven’t they denied it? If it’s true, is it normal practice for the publication to cravenly kow-tow to the wishes of producers who act like divas? Luckily for them, the rest of the dance music press behave in similar ways, hence why they’re asking very few of these questions.

But the thing we find the most reprehensible about their silence is the fact they have thrown Ross under the bus – a journalist who won them an award due to her reporting on sexual assault allegations surrounding Derrick May and Erick Morillo. Yes, Ross might well be a freelancer and not a permanent Mixmag employee – but where is the sense of loyalty? Where is the sense of right and wrong?

The truth is they should have been at the forefront in defending her, and condemning the appalling online behaviour of Carl Craig and Omar S. Not only were they not at the forefront, they have absented themselves entirely. The rest of the media have been nowhere to be seen either – a disgraceful state of affairs.

Which self-respecting freelancer with a, shall we say, controversial story will now want to give Mixmag the time of day, knowing this is how they respond when the going gets tough? Their silence is making them look weak and craven – and keeping their heads buried deep in sand is not going to make things any better…