Bill Cosby asks for neutrality from black media, which doesn’t go over so well
The recent weeks have seen more than 20 women come forward to say that they were sexually assaulted by Bill Cosby. Still, it’s important to remember that these accusations have been made in the media, which regularly shows its bias by reporting these allegations verbatim from their victims—and occasionally in the form of first-person accounts. So Bill Cosby has come forward to remind the media that its job is to approach the story “with a neutral mind,” its reporters ever cognizant of the fact that they are black and so is he. So… you know….
An “upbeat” Cosby issued his latest admonishment to black people in an interview with the New York Post, making it clear that he hopes black journalists will approach these many allegations without letting any personal biases get in the way of their mutual blackness. “Let me say this. I only expect the black media to uphold the standards of excellence in journalism and when you do that you have to go in with a neutral mind,” Cosby said, defending himself against multiple stories in which he’s accused of exerting his power to keep others quiet.
But Cosby’s standards of excellence in black journalism apparently don’t coincide with Bob Butler, president of the National Association of Black Journalists. “You don’t go easier on a person with color,” Butler tells TMZ. “It’s wrong for journalism period…. This not a color issue, this is a journalism issue. Black people happen to be reporters.”
To that end, Butler reminds that most of the stories on Cosby—including those by black reporters—have been without bias. Unless you count the fact that all of them have been placed within the context of Cosby’s celebrity, which gives him both an unusually large benefit of the doubt and the onus of covering the defense from other celebrities, a generosity that would definitely never be granted to an ordinary man who stands accused of nearly two dozen cases of sexual assault. But other than that, totally without bias.
With the media so concerned with presenting only the details of those allegations, it’s up to non-media sources to provide that necessary, unbiased point of view—specifically, Bill Cosby’s wife and daughter, who have offered their own, absolutely neutral disavowals. First up, Camille Cosby, the comedian’s wife since 1964, issued a statement in which she argues that there has been “no vetting” of Cosby’s accusers to see if they are credible enough sources on their own alleged rapes, and that Cosby’s current problems are the result of “a portrait painted by individuals and organizations whom many in the media have given a pass,” now that they are no longer giving Cosby a decades-long pass. “But the question should be asked—who is the victim?” Camille concludes, a question that has arguably been asked—and answered—more than 20 times, at least so far.
Camille also reminds everyone that Rolling Stone recently bungled its own investigation into another woman’s alleged rape. So… you know…