How the Cosby Story Finally Went Viral — And Why It Took So Long

LongReads ^ | June 6, 2019 | Nicole Weisensee Egan

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

In October 2014 Bill Cosby was in the middle of a career resurgence. His biography by former Newsweek editor Mark Whitaker had just come out to rave reviews and was climbing the bestseller list. He had a comedy special coming up on Netflix and was in development with NBC to star in a family sitcom. He was about to embark on another comedy tour based on a special that had aired on Comedy Central the year before. The special, Far from Finished, was Cosby’s first stand-up TV special in three decades, and it attracted two million viewers.

It was as if the scandal in 2005 had never happened, as if fourteen women hadn’t accused him of heinous offenses. The book didn’t even mention Andrea Constand’s allegations, let alone her civil suit or any of the other accusers. And no one in the media was asking Whitaker or Cosby why.

The situation was clear: Cosby had successfully repaired what little damage there was to his reputation after Andrea’s case made the news. He slipped right back into his revered status as public moralist and children’s advocate, chalking up even more awards and honors, including his entrée into the NAACP’s Image Awards Hall of Fame in 2006 for being a “true humanitarian and role model.”

He’d written Come On, People: On the Path from Victims to Victors with Alvin Pouissant, a book that took a “hard look” at the state of black America while offering advice on how to overcome the “deep-rooted” challenges of the poor, embodying the message of those controversial town halls.

[Pikachu_Dad]

This story Smells like a huge fiction — Cosby was framed and taken down for a reason.

They still do not have a date for the alleged attack in Constand.

The appellate court bent into loops to say that she was ‘consistent’ in her claims by limiting their review to the year of the attack.

A shift from spring to Winter is a significant time shift.

You would think that there would be records to barrow the claim down to a date... but nope.

[stuck_in_new_orleans]

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/apr/26/hannibal-buress-how-a-comedian-reignited-the-bill-cosby-allegations

[SunkenCiv]

• Dems cared about sexual politics a few months ago. Now they want Fairfax's accuser to shut up
  • Virginia looks to Black Caucus for cues in political turmoil
• How Democrats Protected a Democrat Who Beat and Murdered His Wife [Judge Lance Mason of Ohio]
• Federal judge orders female genital mutilation charges dropped in Detroit
• Why Eastern Michigan University Canceled the Vagina Monologues
• Dem pollster: Women are less likely to support abortion rights than men
• CBS/Refinery29 Poll Reveals Women Reject Abortion, Feminism, the Media
• How Democrats Suppressed the #MeToo Movement in the Party [4/29/2018]

  Virtue signaling convinces the left of its own unimpeachable morals. When push comes to shove, it rejects guilt for any of its wrongdoing and attributes such allegations to conspiracy theories.

• #MeToo CA Assemblywoman Cristina Garcia Accused of Sexual Harassment [2018]
• The Anti-Women Democratic Party [2018]
• Here's Why the Democrats and their Media Propaganda Complex Are Panicked [2018]
• Schneiderman Victims Warned Not to Speak Out for Good of Dem Party [5/08/2018]
• U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison's ex-girlfriend posts medical record alleging abuse [09/20/2018]
• Ellison accuser: Dems 'smeared, threatened, isolated' me [09/23/2018]
• Keith Ellison Accuser, Karen Monahan, Says Democratic Party Doesn’t Believe Her(!?) [09/17/2018]

  Peter Daou, a Democratic strategist and former advisor to Hillary Clinton and John Kerry, tweeted on Monday that Ford will be "attacked, smeared, and demonized" and that people must "BELIEVE WOMEN."

• Where is Bill Clinton's #MeToo reckoning?
• Hillary Clinton protected '08 campaign adviser accused of sexual harassment
• Hillary Clinton Chose to Shield a Top Adviser Accused of Harassment in 2008
• Let's see if the Left will punish Bernie Sanders for his '72 rape essay
• Barack Obama Official Twitter Account Follows Crude Sexist Anti-Sarah Palin Account

Oh, and...

[Skywise]

This was absolutely a political hit - possibly a trial balloon of sorts to see if they could subvert justice by enforcing social policy post facto.

And they succeeded and then proceeded to go after others - INCLUDING Kavanaugh and realize Cosby was convicted on far less evidence than they had manufactured in Kavanaugh and were it not for his profile (and success) you can bet a Democrat DA would’ve gone after him.

[Forward the Light Brigade]

Cosby got found out—Karma will get ya bad. Others await their turn at the karma wheel—they will be gotten and disgraced. My bet is that Obama will be exposed as will Nancy P. and Hillary and Bill Clinton.

[yarddog]

I have no doubt that he was guilty. Whatever punishment he gets is not enough.

I will say one thing for him. He was extremely talented.

[CaptainK]

He's so guilty.
If you think he's innocent, you haven't been paying attention.

[rlmorel]

I was a fan of Cosby back to the Sixties, we used to listen to his albums. I thought he was great.

As I got older, into the decades of the Sixties and Seventies and saw more interviews with him, there was something about him that registered as...bad, maybe just the kind of person who treated hired help poorly, or was demanding for things like service in a restaurant, just because of who he was. Something along those lines is what I thought. I wasn’t thinking he was a rapist or anything like that.

I remember watching him during a televised interview, and thinking he would be unpleasant in some way if you knew him in person. As if he were wearing a mask for the public to hide something, I didn’t know what. I think it was around that time he had that family sitcom on TV.

Then before any of this was widely known, I remember having a conversation with someone who had once met him socially who said he was kind of a jerk in person. Part of me wrote that off as possible hearsay and if true, a celebrity related thing.

But a gut feeling also told me that he was not the nice person he was trying to come across as.

To be fair, I have been wrong about that kind of gut feeling. But I have been right, too.

[Prince of Space]

The fact that he was serial philanderer made me see him in a new light. And that he still tried to perpetuate his family man persona was the icing on the cake.

[YogicCowboy]

His behavior was long known - just as with Harvey Weinstein.

Bill Cosby left the Plantation by disputing the Narrative. Weinstein became excess-baggage Bag Man when Hillary lost.

Both were primarily political hit jobs. Their actual crimes (real or imputed) were merely pretexts for taking action against them.

[rlmorel]

I take no joy in it.

In much the same way I can no longer watch and laugh at any Jim Carrey movies such as “Liar, Liar”, and the “Naked Gun” movies are just too weird now with OJ Simpson in them...

It would be much nicer if he was just the old Bill Cosby, and I could still laugh at his “Chicken Heart” sketch on his album...:(

[Savage Beast]

Why was Cosby prosecuted but Clinton not?

[AnotherUnixGeek]

If it was one woman who accused him - but so many women from across the decades who’d worked with him came forth saying he’d done it to them. The alternative to his guilt is believing that all those women engaged in a massive conspiracy to frame Bill Cosby.

[PeterPrinciple]

Cosby’s people were able to control the media. But they couldn’t control social media. And once the public has access to information themselves, they can quickly come to their own conclusions.

---

from the article

[Pikachu_Dad]

By golly, you got it right in one guess !

“The alternative to his guilt is believing that all those women engaged in a massive conspiracy to frame Bill Cosby.”

Yes, they did all demand a lot of go away money !

Each of their stories lacked evidence and credibility.

A crime has to have a date. There is still no date for the crime that they convicted him on.

[CodeToad]

It was the claims of Cosby’s behavior on his TV show set that made me doubt his nice-guy persona.

[logi_cal869]

No, they did NOT “all” demand a lot of money.

https://www.thewrap.com/60-bill-cosby-accusers-complete-list-breakdown-guilty/

I had some significant events occur in my youth and, absent a journal, police report or medical record, could NEVER recall the date.

What, you got a photographic memory for occurrences decades ago?

There’s a consistent pattern in many of the stories. Having just read them all for the first time as a group, this clearly smells like much more than false accusations. 1 or 2, ok, fine. But >50???

[Pikachu_Dad]

Just $100,000,000. Small change, right ?!?

“Gloria Allred: Cosby should have $100 million ready for victims”

[Pikachu_Dad]

But you would have remembered if it was spring or winter !

And for this case - which was intended as a civil case shakedown - the police report was made within a year of the alleged event.

There was an investigation.

And there was Insufficient evidence to make a criminal case.

They didn’t have a date then. They still didn’t have a date a decade later.

No date means no case.