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…

Cosby’s daughter Evin followed up her mother’s statement with her own to Access Hollywood, saying, “He is the FATHER you thought you knew. The Cosby Show was my today’s TV reality show. Thank you. That’s all I would like to say :)” But more than just confirming that life with Bill Cosby was nothing but heart-to-hearts, elaborate lip-synching routines, and life lessons taught by having the entire house roleplay as the denizens of a tenement building, the youngest Cosby also had several words for her father’s accusers on Facebook.

“Drugged- you can remember the whole damn day but you were drugged? Just sayin. Memory- you can remember you looked at (allegedly) each other, people were starring allegedly remembering your home address allegedly the name you called him allegedly But you were allegedly drugged,” said Evin, clearly having inherited her father’s medical expertise. “Rape is a serious allegation and it is suppose to be taken VERY seriously but so is Falsely accusing someone,” she later added. “When someone rapes a person they go to prison. THAT should also happen to the person that has wrongfully accused an innocent victim.”

Evin Cosby also posted screenshots of several tweets lashing out at model Beverly Johnson, who appeared on The View yesterday after penning an essay for Vanity Fair, in which she claimed that Cosby drugged and attempted to rape her during an audition for The Cosby Show. Johnson—who claims in her story that she escaped after calling Cosby a “motherfucker” several times, angering him until he relented and forcefully threw her out—faced skepticism from Whoopi Goldberg, among the few in the black media to conform to Cosby’s standards of excellence.

Among other things, Goldberg asked why the drugged and confused Johnson didn’t immediately go to the hospital and why she didn’t later ask the doorman at her building whether she’d seemed drugged and confused, as well as why the drugged and confused Johnson now has such a hazy memory of those alleged events. “Questions- if someone isn’t feeling well…. What you do? Do you A. Call a doctor B. Go to the hospital or C. Can’t believe I called someone BLEEP??? It’s either A or B!” Evin Cosby said, further deriding the drugged and confused Johnson for not acting logically.

Unfortunately, Johnson says she was attacked in the mid-1980s, when Evin Cosby was just a child and far too young to offer this sort of sage counsel. But she may soon get another chance: Chloe Goins, a 24-year-old model and lap dancer, claims she met Cosby at the Playboy Mansion in 2008, where Cosby allegedly brought the then-18-year-old a laced drink. As Goins recounts for The Daily Mail, she says she felt “foggy,” at which point Cosby showed her to a nearby bedroom. She then claims she awoke to find herself fully naked with Cosby “licking her toes” while pleasuring himself.

Goins has reportedly already contacted the LAPD and plans to give a full statement to detectives soon, which could give the police their first claim of sexual assault to fall within California’s statute of limitations for criminal charges. As of now, the only official charges filed against Cosby remain those by Judy Huth, who claimed Cosby assaulted her—also at the Playboy Mansion—when she was just 15. That suit was met with a counter-claim filed by Cosby’s attorneys alleging that Huth is committing extortion, and that her claims of psychological suffering were not supported by the necessary paperwork from a medical professional.

Since then, Huth has filed legal docs that include a statement from a clinical psychologist and UCLA professor in which he states he believes that there is a reasonable basis to believe she did suffer that abuse. Her lawyer has also added that he now has two witnesses who can corroborate Huth’s story, as well as photographs of Cosby and Huth together at the Playboy Mansion, around the time the assault allegedly took place.

While these investigations remain pending, others continue to make up their minds about Cosby—the latest being Spelman College, which this week joined Cosby’s alma mater Temple University and the U.S. Navy in distancing themselves from him. Spelman announced that it had suspended its William and Camille Cosby Endowed Professorship program established through a $20 million donation from the comedian, believing that the “current context” detracts from the program’s goals—not least the fact that no one wants to see the word “endowed” so close to “Bill Cosby” right now, be they part of the black media or otherwise.