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Wednesday, December 16, 2015

Cosby: closer to Judgment Day

We learned Monday that Bill Cosby is countersuing the seven women who previously sued him for damages as a result of rapes that he allegedly committed. More than fifty women have publicly accused him.

Subsequent to the initial accusations in 2005, Cosby has maintained a vehement and continuous denial. Therefore the reports of his countersuit do not surprise me. Anyone who engaged in the immoral acts of which he is accused throughout fifty years must have persuaded himself that he was doing no wrong. Specifically, he argues that all the sex was consensual. His defense is nonsense, of course, but he has drawn support from a surprising number of African-American women including Phylicia Rashad, Whoopi Goldberg (at first), and Hermene Hartman who put it this way.

As you can tell, I believe he did what he's accused of. Watch the faces of the thirteen women who gave their stories on Cosby: The Women Speak, which aired a few months ago on A&E. They cannot all be mistaken or lying or crazy, and the same can be said of the other women who have come forward. I hope the lawsuits will establish that a preponderance of the evidence does point to his guilt. Then his defenders will have to accept painful reality, although it's unlikely that he will ever be charged criminally because of statutes of limitations in the various states where the acts occurred.

I struggled with the Woody Allen situation for a long time, and to an extent I still do. I was a big fan of Allen before he derailed his private life. Today I respect and value his art but not his morality. Cosby is easier for me to deal with. I was never a big fan of him, from I Spy in the 1960s, to the Fat Albert material in the 1970s, and finally The Cosby Show of the 1980s. For some reason, I just didn't find him particularly funny. I was more into Richard Pryor, and among "clean" comedians I found more enjoyment from Flip Wilson. Cos, your Judgment Day is at hand.