Losing the Bill Cosby We Knew
The charges are not by any means new. Through the years he has faced other similar allegations and steadfastly denied them all. In 2006, he settled a civil lawsuit for an undisclosed amount that alleged similar charges.
But if Cosby thought he had put that behind him, he had not counted on today's Twitter-age media and a new public sensitivity to rape allegations.
A video clip of comedian Hannibal Buress calling Cosby a rapist went viral in November when the known count of accusing women was only 13. More have since gone public.
If silence can ever be deafening, it certainly was when Cosby, with his wife Camille sitting next to him, greeted NPR's Scott Simon's questions about the allegation with nothing more than a shake of his head.
He gave a similar response to an Associated Press reporter earlier and has since cancelled other scheduled TV interviews.
And we, his long-time fans eager to give him the benefit of our doubts, wait for something more to hold onto.
Sure, he may want to avoid saying anything in public in order to avoid even more legal claims against him. But as well as that might work in a court of law, it does nothing to reassure the court of public opinion,
This is hardly the first time that a huge fan base has grown up around a popular entertainer and role model, only to find they had feet of clay. But one would be hard-pressed to match Cosby, who took on a new mission a decade ago with his forceful calls for his fellow African-Americans to build stronger families, communities and work ethics.
The heavy cloud of scandal, thickened in this case by the horrendous nature of the accusations, tests our ability to separate the public figure from the private human, especially when the creations are more admirable than their creators.
Other scandalized celebrities as varied as Woody Allen, Martha Stewart and numerous athletes have managed to make comebacks. It is possible to hold two conflicting images in our heads at the same time.
But Bill Cosby's fall is huge because he has been held so highly in our heads and hearts. We may still enjoy his old recordings, but they don't sound the same. The title of his currently troubled comedy tour, "Far from Finished," should have a question mark behind it.
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E-mail Clarence Page at cpage@tribune.com.
(c) 2014 CLARENCE PAGE DISTRIBUTED BY TRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICES, INC.
