Get ready, as the kickoff for Bill Cosby’s Media Redemption Tour is just around the corner following his overturned conviction and brutal release from prison. Who knows which point of sale will be the opening venue or which interviewer will serve as the emcee? Not me. But trust me when I say the broadcast and cable TV newsrooms are probably scrambling to book it while I’m typing this.
As for whoever is given the task of sitting down across from the disgraced comedian and seriously trying to get him to answer the sexual assault allegations made by one of his 60 accusers, it will be hard work. Part of that person’s job will be to have him explain how he can maintain his innocence, as he did after his release on Wednesday, although he admitted to committing incriminating acts in the testimony at the heart of the case. civil servant of Andrea Constand in 2005.
Will the task fall on CBS “60 Minutes” and Anderson Cooper? Maybe NBC’s “Today” will assign Savannah Guthrie to do it. ABC can throw it at Robin Roberts, Diane Sawyer, or Deborah Roberts. All of these assumptions are crazy. I really have no idea who is going to do this.
The truth is, it doesn’t really matter. The only part that will benefit in a lasting way will be Cosby himself.
This is how America works, isn’t it? You know, being the land of second chances and next acts, yadda yadda yadda. When famous men fall out of favor, we castigate them for a short (but respectable!) Period of time before someone, usually other men, starts to wonder when it will be okay for them to return to work. to be big stars.
Louis CK was accused of sexual misconduct by five women in November 2017. In April 2018, The Hollywood Reporter hired a group of comic book and club owners to discuss how he could organize his comeback. Guess what? Later that year he did.
Matt Lauer and Charlie Rose were each charged with sexual misconduct in 2017 and were also fired. Like clockwork, in 2018 people were expressing their curiosity about what to do next. In addition, worried citizens wondered aloud how long these poor unhappy people should have to suffer for their sins.
Ask Kevin Spacey, who was also charged with multiple sexual assault and other misconduct in 2018 and recently landed a role in an Italian film.
Aside from Spacey, none of the aforementioned celebrities have reportedly been accused of raping or sexually assaulting dozens of people, which makes Cosby’s situation closer to that of Harvey Weinstein. The ousted film producer recently filed a lawsuit in the New York State Supreme Court, challenging his 2020 conviction for two sex crimes. But audiences never liked Weinstein, only the films he produced. While to this day, far too many people still imagine Cosby as America’s father.
The bottom line is, someone must be furiously researching this one-on-one.
Let’s be clear: nothing would make me happier than being wrong about all of this.
Perhaps the 83-year-old artist will announce that he is retiring from public life, never to be heard again.
Perhaps the network’s information divisions will make the collective decision to refuse to be used as a launching pad for an image restoration campaign of a man who has been repeatedly and credibly accused of rape and sexual assault, and. . . OK I have to stop, I’m kidding. Nope. That will never happen.
However, the news divisions might instead choose to continue to raise the voice of Cosby’s accusers in the wake of all this and have them work to verbalize what they are feeling right now, which Joy Reid said. immediately did while speaking with accuser Heidi Thomas for Wednesday’s edition of “The ReidOut” on MSNBC.
This will be the route that many will choose initially, as these survivors always speak out with courage. They’ve been through hell before to have manifested themselves in the first place. Now that this delayed shred of justice has been snatched from them, what else do they have to lose?
In a split decision, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court overturned Cosby’s 2018 sexual assault conviction – but not because there is no evidence he is innocent. It happened because the once-beloved Jell-O Pudding Pop spokesperson had previously made a morally wrong deal with former Montgomery County District Attorney Bruce Castor.
Castor, who became Donald Trump’s notoriously incompetent attorney in his second impeachment trial, agreed in 2005 not to prosecute Cosby in exchange for the artist’s deposition in the civil case brought by Constand, a sports administrator from Temple University.
In this deposition, Cosby admitted to drugging women with Quaaludes, knowing it was illegal to do so, and then having sex with them. He maintained that all of these encounters were consensual. Sixty women insist that what happened between them and Cosby was anything but.
Asking experts to explain what message the highest court in Keystone State is sending to other survivors of sexual assault, and coming back to these experts regularly to remind us of the ongoing trauma this turn of events is likely to create, is the responsible thing to do.
But in which version of the sacred timeline do you see one of them resist putting Cosby on the air? Not this one.
Expect TV presenters to buy into what they should does not take into account the commercial aspect of things. It’s not that simple, might say the non-cynical, emotionless explanation of How Things Work. And that’s true. An interview with Cosby would attract huge ratings and generate healthy ad revenue.
In addition, news interviews on networks and cable regularly feature objectionable persons as part of their mission to serve the public interest. This last part is the key. Barbara Walter’s 1989 interview with Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi is a defining example of a session that revealed a lot about a man who was unfamiliar to most of us. ABC News reporter John Miller’s 1998 interview with Osama bin Laden, three years before September 11, was a warning. We didn’t realize that, of course, until the unthinkable happened.
Interviewing celebrities involved in criminal matters is more complicated due to the fandom factor. No amount of documentation or testimony will diminish support for R. Kelly’s diehards, despite all that is revealed in Lifetime’s “Surviving R. Kelly”. Ditto for Michael Jackson.
Cosby may have been convicted of drugging and assaulting Constand in 2004 and spent almost three years in prison for it, but for millions of people he is still a symbol of decency today. At no point in his time behind bars did he completely lose his loyal following.
Unlike the case of another artist whose image is somewhat synonymous with the 1980s, Twitter did not de-platform Cosby. Throughout this time, he has communicated regularly in one way or another with his 3.2 million followers, including Wednesday, when he said: “I have never changed my stance nor my story. I have always maintained my innocence. “
Rewarding their loyalty has paid off. Merely mentioning the rape charges against the late Kobe Bryant in a 2020 interview with Lisa Leslie earned Gayle King death threats and inspired Cosby to praise Snoop Dogg for dragging King – calling her “head of awesome dog b *** h “among other invective.
“It’s so sad and disappointing that successful black women are used to tarnish the image and legacy of successful black men even in death,†Cosby said, because Bill Cosby cares about successful black women. .
The academic question – again, that doesn’t matter – is whether Cosby’s point of view serves the interests of anyone, beyond the network in question and Cosby himself. Even if the producers tick all the boxes – accompanying everything he says with quotes from the testimony and input from a well-meaning expert who can speak to the deleterious impact that overturning his conviction will have on people. women who will come forward, as well as victims willing to refute his turn with their personal accounts – Cosby wins all the same.
And the side of Cosby’s story will be the part that gets quoted and repeated throughout the mediaphere. The sound clips will resonate and be discussed on radio shows and podcasts. His quotes will be reproduced in an assortment of monitoring reports and think tank.
This will serve to clear Cosby’s legacy among people who already thought he was a victim of a railroad – including and certainly not limited to his “Cosby Show” co-star Phylicia Rashad. . Anything this man says on a legitimating TV news platform will be accepted by millions as the truth. It already is, but TV is going to amplify it no matter how much any trustworthy and ethical journalist tries to make it clear that a quashed sentence is not the same thing. than absolution.
Such efforts will enter mainstream consciousness with the same mundane impact as those muted trombone riffs depicting adult voices on every Charlie Brown cartoon. It’s horrible to think of it. But it seems most likely.
Again, I hope I am wrong. I really do. I hope those with the power to decide who the story goes to will prioritize the survivors, as well as any rape survivors who have not received justice and whose hearts have collapsed as they go. ‘they were dealing with this development.
I hope the entertainment divisions will refrain from giving this tainted comedy legend the same pass they have given to other celebrities convicted of terrible wrongdoing. Because whenever this happens, women – black women in particular – are reminded of the higher value that society and their own communities place on these men rather than their accusers.
But this is the season, no, the era of corrupt public figures washing the stains of their past in the river of media exposure. Watch Trump Buddies: Sean Spicer, the former president’s insane and ridiculously dishonest press secretary in 2017, has a political talk show on Newsmax. . . and people actually watch Newsmax.
Another former Trump press secretary Kayleigh McEnany has returned to her natural habitat on Fox News, where she is a commentator. Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump try to convince the naive to “distance themselves” from dad. Former Attorney General Bill Barr is doing all he can to downplay his powerful role in perpetuating Trump’s electoral fraud lie.
If Cosby is able and willing to step down his Image Rehab Road fork – and considering his last stand-up performance was just three months before his 2018 conviction, he probably is – the decision as to the brightness of the projectors it gets will depend on the people who hold them.
Hang on.
