“I know he’s an icon. So is Bill Clinton.”
—-Latest Cosby accuser Joan Tarshis, now a publicist and journalist, who wrote a detailed account of being sexual assaulted by Bill Cosby, when she was a teen, for the Web site Hollywood Elsewhere, replying to a question on CNN this morning about why anyone should believe her when she impugns the character of “an icon.”
BAZINGA!
Ethics Alarms 
“Of course I told no one.”’
Why “Of course”? I can think of lots of reasons and none of them are very flattering to Joan Tarshis. The list starts with “Because it never happened”>
Being raped can be considered to be a very shameful act — especially for the time. I wish she had come forward before now, but that doesn’t make the allegations untrue.
Doesn’t make ’em true, either. In actual fact, at this late date, barring a full confession by either party, we don’t know and will likely NOT know what happened. “Innocent until proven guilty”.
No, the fact that he settled rather than endure 13 other victims testifying in court, the fact that all of them have similar stories, the fact that none of these women have anything to gain; the fact that he settled, and the fact that he pulled his lawyer’s claim about the rapes being “discredited” means that they are almost certainly true.
How many times do I have to point out that “innocent until proven guilty” is not in the Constitution or the law, and has nothing to do with actual guilt or innocence, but just legal guilt? Lots of people were obviously guilty as hell before they could be “proven” so. Lance Armstrong. Bill Clinton. Barry Bonds. John Wilkes Booth. O.J. Casey Anthony. Now Cosby, who was obviously guilty when I wrote about the issue years ago. Here were two posts on it: https://ethicsalarms.com/2012/10/02/one-for-the-innocent-until-proven-guilty-crowd/ and https://ethicsalarms.com/2010/11/22/leslie-johnson-the-implications-of-guilt-and-the-innocent-until-proven-guilty-confusion/, and I’ve written a lot of comments explaining it too.
There are times when corporations will settle untrue claims for nuisance value, but celebrities often have to fight these or else their reputations are gone forever. Unless Cosby had really bad legal advice, I think it is likely that the allegations are true.
Agreed.
There may be a peripheral — visual — factor in favoring conclusions like Dragin’s which would be mitigated by a picture of Ms. Tarshis as a teen. (or not …)
How can anyone, in this society these days, differentiate the rapists from the gold-diggers – or the predators from the prey? There is just too much narcissism going on all around to expect any truth or justice anymore.
Evidence is how you tell them apart. This is why strict rules for the collection, analysis, and dissemination of evidence to all parties is so important. This is why police interrogations should all be videotaped. This is why defense attorneys should have equal access to evidence as the prosecutors. This is also why people who make false police reports or false allegations should be severely punished. This is why we all should push back against ‘secret’ police license plate-reader databases, ‘secret’ police surveillance of random cell phones using drones or aircraft, ‘secret’ cellphone location databases, etc. The people who control the ‘secret’ control the evidence. Evidence controlled like by one party can’t be trusted.
This is also why people who make false police reports or false allegations should be severely punished
Hear,hear !!