Last week, Annabel Ross – she who was allegedly banned by Carl Craig from reviewing the Movement Detroit festival – came out with another of her desperately long pieces about someone or something doing something she didn’t agree with. The aim of her fire this time was Beatport.
Ears To The House made our opinion clear last week – whilst the article had a number of serious allegations in it which deserved coverage, there were also a number of more spurious claims that should, at the least, have been put into a separate article. The Derrick May exposés which Ross wrote in 2020 were taken seriously precisely because they were so devastating to read – and why she didn’t adopt the same approach here is a mystery.
It appears that Vice’s own readers have taken a similar stance. Posting the article on Facebook, they reference a claim two Beatport employees apparently overheard their boss saying “African tribesmen have been killing each other since the dawn of day”. Robb McDaniels denies ever saying it, incidentally.
Their readers responsed with comments like these…
Companies are under no obligation whatsoever to support political movements. That’s not why they exist – they exist for the purpose of making money out of selling a product or a service. If Beatport employees want the company to start promoting Black Lives Matter, the company doesn’t have to – and no amount of whinging to Annabel Ross changes that.
To be fair to the beleaguered writer, however, the handling of this episode isn’t entirely her fault. Vice have their own questions to answer here too. Remember, this is the same Vice which previously faced accusations of a misogynistic culture – a New York Times investigation referred to “four settlements involving allegations of sexual harassment or defamation against Vice employees”.
Could this be the reason why the allegations thrown at Beatport were treated in this way by the article? We do wonder, incidentally, why none of the dance music press went to print with this. Heaven forbid they dare risk upsetting the biggest dance music retailer out there today…
