I do have some concerns about both sides of this. Cosby's recent attempt to have the "black media" bale him out was embarrassing and disgusting - he got the appropriate response. And I agree with Tom's point that the internet and crowd sourcing (well, that might not be the right use of that term) has made it easier for victims of various kinds to resist attempts by the powerful to normalize abuse. OTOH, many of those same factors also make it easier for various kinds of myths and lies to get propagated and accepted by millions as true (no, immunizations do not cause autism; no, Barak Obama is not a Kenyan citizen; no, George Bush did not plan the 9-11 attacks). It is at least possible that a few stale old accusations of sexual abuse have recently been re and then over-heated into some kind of hysterical witch hunt of Bill Cosby.
So, we are in an area where, at least publicly, there is not enough evidence available to conclude Bill Cosby is a serial rapist, but there is enough evidence available to justify asking the question, formally in interviews and in opinion pieces. I have never robbed a bank, but if 10 people said that on 10 separate occasions they had seen me rob their bank, and I cared what people thought of me, I guess I would have to make some public response denying it. I would guess the reason Cosby is not doing that is that his lawyers have told him that right now he has almost no criminal exposure (the statue of limitations has run out as far as I know on all current allegations) - but every time he says anything about the allegations, he is opening the door to the possibility that he might say something to give someone a foundation for a criminal charge, or at least a civil suit (in a situation like this, it is pretty easy for a public figure like Cosby to "defame" someone by calling them a liar. I suspect the last thing Bill Cosby wants right now is to get deposed under oath as part of a civil suit related to these charges). I can imagine a set of circumstances under which Bill Cosby is a relatively innocent man (having had consensual extra-maritial sexual affairs with several women over the years, but never raping them), in which case he would no doubt be feeling very angry right now about the injustice of life. Sadly (for the alleged victims but also, obviously in a much lesser way, for me and the other many millions of Cosby's fans) I am more inclined as of now to tentatively believe that Cosby is a man of wealth who has used power and privilege to rape women one way or the other over the years with relative impunity, and is only now gradually seeing those protections melt away. On Tue, Dec 16, 2014 at 10:09 AM, Tom Wolper <[email protected]> wrote: > > On Tue, Dec 16, 2014 at 12:16 PM, Joe Hass <[email protected]> wrote: > >> >> For me, Cosby has bizarrely transcended to this place where I just want >> him to go away. Someone suggested that it'd be in his best interest if he >> just went into seclusion somewhere far away for the rest of his life, but >> Cosby just seems quixotically determined to respond to all this the same >> way he always has, expecting others to behave as they always have, except >> they aren't. I get the feeling he either has no crisis management people or >> he's flat-out ignoring them because he knows so damn best. You'd at least >> think his lawyers would be telling him to shut the fuck up. At this point, >> every time he opens his mouth things become worse. It's as if the >> patheticness has somehow neared the monstrosity of the actions. >> > > Clay Shirky wrote a book called Here Comes Everybody about the change in > organizing people in the age of the internet. One of his early examples is > the case of the catholic church about ten years ago. ten years ago some > victims of sexual abuse by priests came forward. This wasn't the first time > it had happened and the church had, over the decades, formed a response and > the allegations went away. Ten years ago, though, as the victims went > online and shared their stories, other victims came forward as well and the > church's response failed where it had previously succeeded. As the scandal > snowballed it took a couple of years and court cases until the church > realized that its tried and true approach was causing more trouble than it > was solving. > > Cosby has also been dealing with accusations for decades and the response > he developed has always worked. Unlike previous times he's not up against a > single victim acting alone but a large number of victims plus the part of > our society tired of deferring to privilege, whether it's male, rich, > celebrity, or all three. Cosby is determined to stick with what always > worked even if it continues to make things worse for him. > > -- > -- > TV or Not TV .... 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