Dear readers:
There are allegations circulating on social media about people associated with Bida Manda and Brewery Bhavana. I was made aware of some of these allegations and interviewed a person making them last May. For reasons that aren’t adequate, I failed to ensure that we followed up as we should have.
By way of explanation—rather than an excuse—at the time, we simply lacked the resources and personnel we needed to see the story through properly. I hoped to report it myself, but never found time to get to it.
At a minimum, I should have followed up with the person I spoke with in May and let her know the obstacles we subsequently ran into. I failed to do that, and I apologize.
As this story resurfaced on social media late last week, I asked our deputy arts and culture editor, Sarah Edwards, to work on it, beginning by contacting everyone who had reached out to us recently. Sarah only became aware that this story existed a few days ago. You can reach her at sedwards@indyweek.com.
If you’d like to discuss this with me, please email me at jbillman@indyweek.com.
This response is highly suspect, especially given the amount of free advertising this site has given Brewery Bhavana in the last year. “Simply lacked the resources and personnel” feels like double-talk for “we/I did not make it a priority”. The question your response raises is – why? I’m asking this publicly because I don’t think emailing people privately is acceptable for a publication that is supposed to serve its community. I’ll reserve judgement until I learn more, but this response it lacking substance, to say the least.
You folks are paid political activists who masquerade as journalists under the banner of a mediocre, left leaning, low volume curated news rag.
It’s not surprising that you wouldn’t follow up when you could be commenting on Trump’s tweets and stoking fauxdemic fears.
It’s not workload, it’s not priorities. You just aren’t that good at this and you aren’t willing to set aside your feelings and egos in order to have the humility to get better.
Mr. Billman, had you handled the Bida Manda employees’ allegations as you did the proven discrimination in my case, i.e., start out maligning them, follow with pathologizing them, and cap it off with a rhetorical question of whether they were “shitty” (your word choice) employees, they’re better off not having you report it. Good luck in the unemployment line. It’s a bitch looking for work once an employer rips you — even if they are lying, as I proved in my case.
…and now that scoop is about to be out? That about right?
The trouble with trying so hard to be with the in crowd is that your bias shows when you overplay or lie when you try to please that circle, and you choose to remain silent when in crowd members are bad actors. Hate to break it to you, but…pssst…the real in crowd laughs at you behind closed doors.
odd that you lack the resources and personnel to report on sexual abuse allegations against the owner of Brewery Bhavana last May but DID have the resources and personnel to feature Brewery Bhavana in your publication 12 times since last May. Time to get your priorities straight, Indy.