I don’t want to believe it.
Sexual assault allegations are swirling against a man that millions of Americans invited into our homes each week for eight years. The evidence is stronger than ever against Bill Cosby, but I can hardly stand to read about it.
It shouldn’t be like this though. Deep inside, I know that I don’t personally know Cosby, his character or his darkest secrets.
But as a kid whose father was on the other side of the world during the original run of “The Cosby Show,” Cosby’s character Cliff Huxtable was one of the few father figures I had in my life.
I know Cosby isn’t Huxtable — the TV dad with just the right advice for every situation a kid of any age could get into.
Perhaps that’s why when I first heard that five different women are accusing Cosby of raping them, I refused to believe it. And I still fall into a camp of doubters whose loudest proponent is actress Whoppi Goldberg.
“I hope somebody gets to the bottom of it but I’m going to reserve my judgment because I have a lot of questions, as I’ve said. It’s crazy but I have a lot of questions, because I know we all have friends who have gone through this,” Goldberg said.
I, too, hope someone gets to the bottom of it.
As of yet, Cosby has never faced criminal charges in any of the rape allegations.
“I didn’t say that he didn’t commit the crime,” former Montgomery County, Pa., District Attorney Bruce Castor told the Associated Press. “What I said was there was insufficient, admissible and reliable evidence upon which to base a conviction beyond a reasonable doubt. That’s prosecutors speak for ‘I think he did it but there’s just not enough here to prosecute.’”
It’s already taken a toll on Cosby’s career. Both NBC and Netflix announced Wednesday that they were putting a halt to Cosby’s projects because of the allegations, and I imagine that re-runs of “The Cosby Show” will be scarce on syndicated TV for at least a while.
You know who would know how to fix all this mess? How to get justice for everyone involved, even the adopted Cosby Kids all across the county?
Cliff Huxtable.
Too bad he’s only a TV character and the real Cosby is much more complicated.
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Josh Edwards is a reporter and can be reached by email at josh.edwards@vicksburgpost.com or by phone at 601-636-4545.