Brace yourself for the Bill Cosby media redemption tour
Get ready, because the kickoff of Bill Cosby’s Media Redemption Tour is coming ’round the bend in the wake of his overturned conviction and abrupt release from prison. Who knows which outlet will be the opening venue or which interviewer will serve as the emcee? Not I. But trust me when I say broadcast and cable TV newsrooms are probably falling all over themselves to book him as I type this.
As for whomever lands the assignment of sitting across from the disgraced comedian and earnestly trying to get him to answer for the allegations of sexual assault made by any of his 60 accusers, that’s going to be a tough gig. Part of that person’s job will be getting him explain how he can maintain his innocence, as he did after his release on Wednesday, despite admitting to incriminating acts in the deposition at the heart of Andrea Constand’s 2005 civil case.
Will the task fall to CBS’s “60 Minutes” and Anderson Cooper? Maybe NBC’s “Today” will assign Savannah Guthrie to take it on. ABC may throw it to Robin Roberts, Diane Sawyer or Deborah Roberts. All of these are wild guesses. I truly have no clue who will do this.
This is how America works, right? You know, being the land of second chances and next acts, yadda yadda yadda. When famous men fall from grace, we lambaste them for a short (but, respectable!) amount of time before someone, usually other men, begin musing about when it will be OK for them to return to the business of being huge stars.
Louis C.K. was accused of sexual misconduct by five women in November 2017. By April 2018 The Hollywood Reporter engaged a group of comics and club owners to discuss how he could stage his comeback. Guess what? Later that year, he did.
Matt Lauer and Charlie Rose were each accused of sexual misconduct in 2017 and pushed out of their jobs as well. Like clockwork, by 2018 people were expressing curiosity as to what they would do next. Moreover, concerned citizens wondered aloud how long these poor unfortunate souls should have to suffer for their sins.
Aside from Spacey, none of those aforementioned celebrities were alleged to have raped or sexually assaulted dozens of people, which makes Cosby’s situation closer in resemblance to that of Harvey Weinstein. The fallen film producer recently filed an appeal in New York State’s Supreme court, challenging his 2020 conviction for two felony sex crimes. But the public never loved Weinstein, merely the movies he produced. Whereas to this day, far too many people still picture Cosby as America’s dad.
Bottom line, somebody must be furiously angling for that one-on-one.
Let me be clear: Nothing would make me happier than to be wrong about any of this.
Maybe the 83-year-old performer will announce he’s retreating from public life, never to be heard from again.
Perhaps network news divisions will make the collective decision that they refuse to be used as a launchpad for an image-restoration campaign of a man who has been multiply and credibly accused of rape and sexual assault, and . . . OK I need to stop, I’m laughing. Nope. Never gonna happen.
This will be the route many will choose initially because these survivors are still bravely speaking up. They have already been through hell for coming forward in the first place. Now that this shred of delayed justice has been ripped from them, what else do they have to lose?
In a split decision, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court overturned Cosby’s 2018 conviction for sexual assault — but not because there’s any evidence he is innocent. It happened because the once-beloved Jell-O Pudding Pop spokesman had previously cut a morally reprehensible deal with former Montgomery County prosecutor Bruce Castor.
Castor, who went on to become Donald Trump’s famously inept lawyer in his second impeachment trial, agreed in 2005 not to criminally prosecute Cosby in exchange for the performer giving a deposition in the civil case brought by Constand, a Temple University sports administrator.
In that 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 these encounters were consensual. Sixty women insist that what happened between Cosby and them was anything but.
Having experts explain what message the highest court in the Keystone State is sending to other sexual assault survivors, and retu
