It has to be said that journalists are not a popular breed these days – and the occupation has largely itself to blame. Their job is to question everyone, question everything, and trust nothing – it is not, as so many modern journalists appear to believe, to tell their readers what to think.
Yes, there are many excellent journalists out there who still understand why they do what they do – but a sizeable minority are letting down their own profession. And in the world of dance music – where journalism standards have never exactly been high – the rot hits especially deep.
How else would Annabel Ross have got away with the absolute shambles that was her Movement Detroit review – as covered by Ears To The House yesterday? As we said before, “not an inch of [Paxahau, Movement’s owners] bottom remained unkissed” by the time Ross was finished with her gushing, sycophantic ramble.
But as one of our reliable Detroit sources pointed out to us yesterday, it wasn’t just Paxahau whom Ross was being extra obsequious towards. He said “You could go a lot further with this. Last year, Annabel was gunning for Detroit. She was furious with the way Paxahau treated her when Carl Craig made that ultimatum. I don’t blame her, I’d have felt the same.”
“But she’s come back this year, and it all seems to have been forgotten about. There’s no mention of the toxic masculinity she’s always talking about. Even worse, though, is the way she’s shamelessly licking the boot of the Detroit scene. She’s probably got cherry blossom poisoning now.”.
Heaven only knows what all the women who revealed all to Ross about horrific allegations of sexual abuse against Derrick May make of all this. Barely three years ago, she had no qualms about making enemies in Detroit over this – and rightly so – yet here she is now praising Juan Atkins from the rooftops.
The fact that Atkins himself did a show with Derrick May on the same weekend as Movement – all part of May’s bizarre comeback tour – makes this apparent volte de face all the more difficult to understand. Why did Ross not use the opportunity to ask Atkins some questions on the matter? And why is her review so utterly lacking in any actual journalism, for that matter?
The ever mischievous Michael James posted a brilliant takedown of Ross’s review of Movement yesterday – and we urge all our readers to look at it. He provides no less than ten different points of where Ross either got it entirely wrong or didn’t tell the full story – yet again, Mixmag’s editorial team face questions about why a piece riddled with mistakes was cleared for publication.
Ears To The House finds ourselves once again posing the same question as we posed yesterday – did Annabel Ross the journalist write this review, or did Annabel Ross the budding DJ? It’s a question that simply refuses to go away…
