An Editorial on an Editorial

[tinhuviel]

Willful blindness was why we didn’t see Cosby as creepy before. It was why many people had never heard of these accusations: because the media forgot about them, too. Nobody wanted to believe this about America’s favorite dad. Powerful people in Hollywood felt it was to their financial benefit to overlook it. Now, suddenly, it is not.

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Comments

[foreverharley]

Without getting into guilt or innocence of Bill Cosby here in this particular situation.
There is of course another side to this is, though it really could also be seen as something against the industry as well. And that is sometimes the other party may do something to get money [or they just want their 15 minutes of fame] out someone who is a celebrity. Like back in the late 90's when Cosby publicly admitted he had an affair with Shawn Upshaw. He admitted giving her about $100,000 because he didn't want the affair publicly revealed. But then suddenly about 20 some years later it was because the woman said he was the father of her daughter. In the end the daughter was given jail time for trying to extort $40 million from Cosby. So this really became a case of people using a celebrity for their own personal gain. And this is the media industry's fault for letting the users like that have their 15 minutes, and in some cases their money too.

[tinhuviel]

I'm in total agreement. I don't think anyone outside the circle of people directly involved will ever know the truth, or even a shred of it. I place the responsibility firmly on our culture's collective head. It's the money that talks, nothing more.

This situation reminds me of one of my favourite lines in the movie 8MM, when Nicholas Cage asked the dead rich man's lawyer why said dead rich man would want to commission a film of a little girl being murdered. The lawyer said, "Because he could."

That's the thing with all these people we fawn over or blindly follow. They begin to believe their own hype and, even if they aren't guilty of accusations later on, they still carry the attitude that only poverty-stricken low-lifes have to deal with the justice system.

[polypolyglot]

I am always wary of liking a public figure too much.

[tinhuviel]

I admit I engage in hero-worship, and would be destroyed if I found out something hideous about Jeff Lynne, for instane. Other heroes could probably get away with much much worse, and it would probably barely faze me. And then there's another hero who always pleasantly surprises me, because I imagined him to the stuff from which nightmares lurk.