During his introduction to the Bob Dylan song “Chimes of Freedom” that ends the shows on his current tour, Bruce Springsteen talks about the growing partisan divide in the U.S., saying in part: “The hardest part for me is feeling the distance between you and your neighbors… the distance is painful and can darken your soul.”
In the aftermath of the tragic April 22 killing of Emma MacDonald on the UMass campus, I’ve thought a lot about this “distance” that Springsteen talks about. The morning after her horrible death, I walked through the Campus Center. I was there less than 12 hours after Emma was killed in the Campus Center Hotel, allegedly by her husband, Jeffrey MacDonald.
I don’t know what I was expecting, but the scene was… casual. I passed several student tour groups filled with high-schoolers excited to check out the campus. Students milled around, grabbing coffee. The distance between what I knew and what I saw was vast.
It was surreal.
After the brutal slaying, UMass Chancellor Javier Reyes sent out several emails to the university community, but to date, there has yet to be a press conference held by officials from the university, the police department, or officials from the DA’s office to address ongoing questions surrounding the case.
As in most cases where there is an information vacuum, rumor and speculation seep in. There are reports that the accused killer jumped into the campus pond earlier in the day of the slaying, leading to a 911 call. If the police responded, what did they do? How did Emma and her killer end up in a hotel room that night? Were there signs of violence or abuse in the workplace in the weeks and months leading up to the killing? Those are just some of the many questions still circulating.
Additionally, the day before the killing, a female student was attacked while walking to a campus parking lot. At a minimum, a press conference could have clarified whether the two incidents were related.
Sending emails and/or texts are relatively easy and low-stakes actions. But, as I tell my journalism students, face-to-face communication, especially with sensitive issues, allows for a level of humanity that electronic communication does not. E-mail communication does not allow for the human interaction that is disappearing and creating the distance Springsteen talks about.
I have a good friend who was a domestic violence victim when she was in college, and she said she was having a difficult time last week and couldn’t talk about the killing because it was a trigger for her. The emails did little to help her with her struggles. I’ve heard repeated complaints from students about the email communications.
The failure to have a public press conference is a missed opportunity — not only to answer outstanding questions from the public but also to put a public face on gender violence and to have experts openly discuss violence against women. As any crisis communication expert will tell you, being out front having these discussions is the humane, positive, and forward-thinking approach. And it helps close the distance with our neighbors.
In the initial days after the killing, the accused killer was portrayed by several news media organizations as an “award-winning chef,” while Emma was often described as the “wife.” Such characterizations are common, according to Leslie Morgan Steiner, a world-renowned speaker on women’s rights issues.
In a presentation to about 40 UMass journalism students last week, Steiner, a domestic violence survivor, described Emma as “one of those one in three women who experience domestic violence every year and one of those 500 women” who are killed in the U.S. every year from domestic violence.
Much of the language in news reports to date has followed the language in the initial police reports and emails, including an assertion Steiner has heard often: that there was “no immediate threat to the community.”
“What they are essentially trying to say is ‘don’t be worried.’ She’s dead. So, don’t be worried. Which is a terrible thing to say. It’s a callous thing to say. And it’s not true.”
She explained that there was likely a history of domestic abuse involving Jeffrey MacDonald, an assertion supported by court documents surrounding a custody dispute with the mother of his children.
Steiner spent more than an hour talking to students about language around domestic violence as well as awareness… and the need for everyone involved, journalists, public officials, school officials to be open and frank when discussing violence against women.
I hope she helped to bridge the distance Springsteen talks about. In the past week, hundreds gathered at two vigils on campus that brought together neighbors, many of whom have been traumatized by Emma’s killing. It’s tough to keep what happened at UMass and other violence against women from darkening our souls. A good place to start is by having open and frank discussions in public forums. As a wise jurist once said, “sunlight is the best disinfectant.”
Steve Fox is a senior lecturer and sports journalism director for the Journalism Department at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.