If you follow news in the beer world, May 2021 became synonymous with the word “reckoning” as a wave of stories about sexual harassment, assault, and inappropriate behavior toward women were shared from across the country and world. Massachusetts brewer Brienne Allan was the catalyst for this, first sharing her own experiences on Instagram, then asking other women for their own stories, and amplifying their voices. This started on social media, but quickly became national news for industry publications, newspapers like the Boston Globe, NPR affiliates around the country, and beyond.
Two of the writers who have extensively covered this story and it’s fallout are my colleagues at Good Beer Hunting, Beth Demmon and Kate Bernot. In this episode of our collective series, we’ll hear from both of them about what it means to report on these kinds of stories, how to tell them fairly and accurately, and the toll it takes as someone who has to synthesize all of these traumas and relay them to readers in a journalistic way.
You can read numerous stories by Beth and Kate right now on Good Beer Hunting, and there will be more in the future as reverberations continue to impact the industry and the way people and businesses seek to do better to protect others.