Bill Cosby - Is it true???

Exactly what he's doing. Let the lawyers handle it and try not to feed the trolls. If you're damned no matter what there's no use expending effort on the sisyphean task of trying to convince the world you're not a communist.

 

I have mixed feelings on this issue.

On the one hand, it's hard to see any incentive for these women to lie.
On the other hand, there is a reason that we have a statute of limitations for crimes like this. It's impossible to defend yourself decades after the fact.

Shitty situation, regardless.

 

I have mixed feelings as well, only in that being tried in the court of public opinion is a piss poor way to deal with something like this.
There is an interesting article about hos different the careers of Bill Cosby and Terry Richardson have affected.

Why Is Bill Cosby’s Career Over, But Terry Richardson’s Isn’t

 

"Innocent until proven guilty" is an arbitrary standard. It is by definition biased towards the accused, and this bias isn't trivial. The nice thing about being people (and not constitutionally-bound branches of the government) is that we can all adopt for ourselves our own thresholds for guilt. Does the cumulative weight of several separate accusations constitute convincing evidence of something? I think so. There are so many public figures who don't have a single accusation. Racking up several if there's nothing going on seems either super unlikely or the result of some sort of conspiracy. Should we believe that Bill Cosby is super unlucky? That he is suffering at the hands of some secret cabal of women looking to exploit America's generally horrible treatment of rape victims? Or is the most likely explanation that he's a fucking rapist who has gotten by on residual goodwill and the exploitation of respectability politics.

 

Trial by media in the court of public opinion rarely favors the innocent.

 

I don't know that this is true.

 

The tarnish of inaccurately suggested guilt is hard to remove.

Good grief, my comments read as those I'm generating them with a Cliche program.

 

But what about the Woody Allens of the world, who continue to do their thing unscathed by possibly damning evidence?

 

First, Woody Allen marrying his former stepdaughter wasn't illegal because she was an adult (barely legal, IIRC). Rape is illegal. If there were any rape, statutory rape, or sexual abuse charges against him I don't recall hearing about them. I wouldn't doubt that Mia Farrow suggested inappropriate behavior by Allen. Allen didn't get away totally unscathed. He moved to England in part to get away from the publicity here in the US, and he also had a hard time getting anyone to back his movies. He also had to start giving interviews and hitting the talk show circuit to promote his films, activities which he previously shunned. Something else, since the former step-daughter issue, when was the last time Allen had a hit movie? From what I've read he now has to rely on the European box office rather than the US boxoffice; people here don't flock to his movies.

FTR, I'm disgusted by what Allen did. Nobody will ever convince me that Allen didn't pull a Pymalion with Soon-Yi when she was his very young and very impressionable stepdaughter.

 

Dylan Farrow has accused Allen of touching her inappropriately.
When she was it kid it seemed like she was being coached by Mia but she stuck to the story even as an adult even adding details that made it seem more likely.
Still it's really hard to be sure because of the total cluster that their breakup created.
There was an attempt to bring charges but it was found that there wasn't enough evidence.

In terms of his movies, while they don't become blockbusters they do well enough that he doesn't have a problem getting funding and most stars are happy to work with him.

 

I would guess that it has taken Allen a very long time to regain some of the status that he lost after the Soon-Yi uproar. And I don't think that he has or ever will fully regain his 'A List' status. That's not to say he isn't doing relatively well... these days. It's also quite likely that the people in the movie industry are more forgiving than the general public.

I'm only vaguely familiar with the allegations made by Dylan Farrow, now that you mentioned them.

 

Woody Allen has been and continues to be one of the most highly regarded comedy writers and directors in Hollywood. He has worked steadily for decades. Trial by media seems irrelevant.

Besides, rarely is the media uniform in its response to situations like these. For instance, many people in the media are taking Cosby's side (as they have for decades). Some people aren't. I'm not sure how meaningful "trial by media" even is here.

 

I stand by my comment that Cosby is facing "trial by media." Clearly the intensity isn't what it could be, and Cosby is a very good position to emerge with few long lasting repercussions.

He has a solid reputation for his clean comedy and for being an activist who doesn't play the race card. Let's be honest, having many whites in his corner helps him immensely (yes, even in 2014). If he were a "dirty" black comedian who threw around "white blame" for decades he'd have a lot of white detractors, and even today the entertainment biz & news media are mostly (but not completely) controlled by whites. Suppose a black celebrity with a race chip on their shoulder who loved to run their mouth--such as a young Spike Lee--were facing these charges.

The fact that what might have happened took place quite a while back works in his favor. So much time has passed the allegations against Cosby are now nearly--perhaps completely--impossible to prove.

His age and general appearance. Cosby is an old man, and doesn't have a threatening presence.

EDIT--Allen did indeed keep busy making movies after his 1997 marriage, but there is a clear drop in the boxoffice from '97 to around '05. With one movie being the exception. My conclusion, right or wrong, is his popularty dropped considerably for about eight years due to the publicity surrounding his Pymalion relationship with Soon-Yi.

 

He is facing trial by public opinion, which isn't necessarily the same thing as trial by media. Either way, I don't see a problem with it. It isn't like trial by jury has a particularly effective reputation in celebrity rape cases.

He does seem like a nice guy, kinda? Though the idea that he doesn't play the race card is pretty obviously false, seeing as how Cosby has been playing the race card against black people via respectability politics for a long time. Nice guys can be rapists. Real rapes can go unreported for decades.

Cosby's real personal advantage here is that he's already pretty wealthy and all he stands to lose is respect.

Well, I won't try to dissuade you from your conclusion, though I think that the quality and magnitude of evidence for your theory about Allen's career is considerably smaller than the quality and magnitude of evidence that Bill Cosby is a rapist.