Based on recent reporting it would be reasonable if people did not understand the findings of the UMass investigation of Alex Morse.
Two independent investigations on the unspecified, salacious allegations UMass Amherst students launched against Morse in the final month of his campaign for Congress have determined unequivocally that: 1) Alex Morse did not violate UMass Amherst policy regarding faculty relationships with students; and 2) state Democratic leadership, including Party Chair Gus Bickford and others, aided and abetted the UMass students who fabricated a story designed to harm Morse’s campaign.
The Recorder’s Jan.14 front page story, “Report clears Morse’s conduct,” continues to ignore that the UMass students’ story was fabricated and perpetuates the impression that there was impropriety even though Morse was cleared of any wrongdoing.
Similarly, other regional media continue the drumbeat of impropriety, most recently and notably, The Springfield Republican’s vitriolic, anonymous editorial published Jan. 24. We have to ask why is there so much attention to what should be a dead issue?
The unsigned editorial and The Recorder article completely ignore the Intercept reporting proving that a UMass student, Timothy Ennis, who hoped to enter into politics by impressing Richie Neal, fabricated an entire story in order to entrap Mayor Morse and effectively end his campaign through lies and innuendo. Furthermore, the State Democratic Party proved complicit in crafting and pushing that false narrative according to the findings of a separate investigation conducted by Cheryl Jacques. Not only did the UMass college Democrats work to invent false accusations against Mayor Morse, the official investigation found the Massachusetts Democrat Party Chair Gus Bickford, and Executive Director Veronica Martinez, had unethically used their positions to aid the conspiracy to bring down the Morse campaign.
In reporting on the findings of the UMass investigation exonerating Morse, the Republican editorial openly chastises Morse for the exact conduct that was, in fact, exonerated. When the intentionally vague College Democrats’ letter was initially released, Alex Morse immediately issued a statement addressing the veiled suggestions of impropriety, and then followed up with a more complete statement denying any wrongdoing. In no way was either statement an admission of any unethical or illegal actions.
Surprisingly, The Recorder article goes to some lengths to assure that Richard Neal was not involved in the allegations. A spokesman for the Richard Neal campaign is quoted as saying that the Report confirms that neither Neal nor members of his campaign had anything to do with the allegations. This may be true, but it is unclear how the conclusion could be drawn from the interviews with 8 students; neither Morse nor Neal nor members of their campaigns were interviewed by the Investigators.
Profoundly missing in the reporting is the homophobia that informed the smear campaign from start to finish. It must be addressed. Those of us who are part of the LGBTQ+ community know dog whistles when we hear them, and these have been consistently deafening. In particular, the merest whisper of any interactions between gay men and younger adult men sets off a horrific cascade of predatory tropes and pitchforks. These ugly innuendoes can have lethal consequences.
What makes this whisper campaign particularly sinister and offensive was the skill with which the innuendoes were deployed, without ever crossing the line into actual allegations. Seeded on the internet gossip mill and published in a college paper after all legitimate outlets that the young adults shopped the story to refused to publish, the salaciously slanted innuendo is impossible to disprove, because there were no specifics. This is where the involvement of the MassDems leadership in helping to craft the initial letter from the college students, who knew exactly what they were doing, but wished to avoid potential charges of libel, is so culpable.
The Recorder would do well to investigate the conduct of the State Democratic Party, and not the private life of Alex Morse, if it wants its readers to understand the depravity of last summer’s activities around the Democratic primary election.
Dolores Root is a Shelburne resident and a member of the the CD-1 Progressive Coalition, which is made up of groups including Franklin County Continuing the Political Revolution, Rise Up Western Mass Indivisible, Indivisible Pittsfield, Women’s March, Our Revolution Chicopee, Voices Rising Together (Granville), Indivisible Williamsburg, New Marlborough Democratic Committee, Colrain Democratic Town Committee, Greylock Together and the Pioneer Valley Resistance Coalition.